


Unspoken

by Despy



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M, Loneliness, Love, Romance, Silence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-06-01 11:09:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 48,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6516028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Despy/pseuds/Despy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sophia goes missing, the group finds someone else roaming the woods. Cooper Torres is a quiet girl, though not by choice. How will Cooper deal with the challenges of her disability while also trying to fit into the group? What happens when she forms a sort of unspoken bond with the big bad redneck, Daryl Dixon.<br/>(Trying a new description, still the same story)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

Cooper Alexis Torres. That’s me. Its something I tell myself every day now. To remember who I am, who I was.

It’s easy to forget the past, the way things used to be, in this new world. It’s even easier for someone like me who had trouble remembering before. Nothing was the same for me ever since the accident. I lost everything in that accident. My family, my voice, my memories.

I still kind of had memories but they were foggy and hard to distinguish. Sometimes I would wake up in the morning and have no idea where I was or what was going on. It usually only lasted a short while before everything would come back to me. The gruesome faces of the dead, the fall of society. Those memories were always so vivid, maybe because they were fresh. 

Occasionally I’ll remember something from before, it’ll come to me in a flash out of nowhere. That’s why I started keeping a journal. I figured out quickly that just because I’d remember something didn’t mean it would stick, so I’d write it down in my journal before it had a chance to slip away.

I always thought that it sucked to not really be able to remember much from before but I had changed my mind pretty quickly. Not long after the fall I had joined up with a group of other survivors. We had made a camp just outside the city and we were doing what we could to survive. Most of the time everyone would just sit around, zoning out, obsessing over the past. People started breaking down, coming unhinged, falling into dark places because they couldn’t let go of what used to be. 

Then one day I woke up and couldn’t remember anything. I had no idea who those people were or where I was. Things were already strained between myself and the group because of the communication barrier, none of them understood sign language so me writing notes for them had become our way of communicating. But writing everything down was an inconvenience, and when I woke up with no memories, I became a problem. Then my memories came back and they all thought I was playing some sick joke on them. I wish. 

Not long after that we went on a supply run into the city, I guess they were still mad at me, because next thing I knew I was wandering the streets of Atlanta completely alone. They had ditched me. By the time I had managed to get back to camp everyone was gone. They all packed up and left without me. That’s when I realized that I was probably better off on my own anyway.

It had been several months now since society fell and I was currently lurking around in the woods somewhere outside of Atlanta. I had been on my own for a while now and I had gotten pretty good at taking care of myself. After a lot of practice I had learned how to move through the trees almost noiselessly. After picking up that handy skill, it was pretty easy to get around without drawing the attention of the biters. I spent most of my time wandering around aimlessly, scavenging supplies from abandoned cars and houses whenever I needed. I had recently decided that I should learn how to hunt too, but I figured out pretty quickly that I was terrible at it, so I was back on the move to find more supplies.

I had been walking for a while when a strange noise caught my attention. It sounded like someone was crying. I continued forward curiously, when a shrill yelp echoed through the trees followed by the shuffling sound of someone running in the opposite direction. I picked up my pace, heading in the direction of the ruckus when everything went completely silent. I couldn’t hear the shuffling anymore, or the crying. Whoever it was, they were long gone now. 

Probably running away from some biters I thought to myself as I slowed my pace. Whoever they are, I hope they got away ok.

Not long later, maybe fifteen minutes, I heard more footsteps approaching along with faint sound of voices. 

“Sofia!” I heard a gruff voice call out.

So they were looking for someone. Probably whoever it was I heard earlier. I decided to head their way and try to tell them what I had heard. 

I made may way through the trees in the direction of the voices, being careful to be as quiet as possible. They were being pretty loud, which would already start attracting every biter in the area, no need to add to it. I rounded a tree and nearly jumped out of my skin when something went whizzing by just a few inches in front of my face. I looked at the arrow embedded into the tree right next to my head and turned to look at the person who fired. 

There was fairly tall man holding a crossbow standing just a few feet away from me. He had on a flannel shirt with no sleeves that showed off his broad shoulders and nicely toned arms. He had short brown hair and a handsome rugged appearance, that would have been much more attractive if he wasn’t currently scowling at me like he wanted me to burst into flames. A second later two more guys came walking up just behind him. One was slightly taller than the first guy but much thinner. He was wearing a sheriff’s uniform and had an air of authority about him. The other guy was a young Asian man who was wearing a baseball cap. I don’t know why, but his face seemed so damn familiar, and apparently I wasn’t wrong judging by the surprised expression on his face.

“Cooper!” He said, earning curious looks from the other two men with him. 

I looked him over curiously when it suddenly came back to me. I Used to know this guy. We worked together or something like that before the fall, though I couldn’t remember if it was before or after my accident. I remembered him holding a stack of pizza boxes, wearing a silly uniform with a name tag that said Glenn.

“Do you remember?” he asked curiously and a huge smile broke across my face. He asked if I remember, so that means he must have known me after the accident. In a spur of the moment reaction of pure joy, I skipped forward excitedly and threw my arms around him in a tight hug. 

“I guess that’s a yes” he chuckled as I released him and nodded happily. I wasn’t so sure why I was so excited to see him, but it certainly was nice to see a familiar face again. 

“Glenn, you know this girl?” the sheriff asked curiously.

“Yea, we used to work together before everything fell apart. This is Cooper” he introduced me.

“I’m Rick Grimes” the sheriff said “That’s Daryl Dixon” he said looking toward the man with the crossbow. “Were looking for a little girl, have you seen or heard anything?” he asked almost desperately.

I nodded and quickly took off my backpack and pulled out a note pad and a marker that I had found a while back. I learned the hard way that ninety percent of people didn’t know sign language, so it was much easier to just start off with the note pad. 

“The hell is she doing?” Daryl growled out impatiently.

“She can’t talk” Glenn explained simply, shrugging when he was met with skeptical looks.

I finished writing down exactly what I had heard earlier and handed it over to Rick. He read it quickly, and looked like he wanted to throw up as he passed it over to Daryl. 

“She can’t have gone too far yet” he mumbled. “Which way did she go?” he asked, giving me a pointed stare. I quickly pointed in the direction that I heard the noise from and he nodded, yanked his arrow from the tree and reloaded the crossbow.

“Glenn” Rick said suddenly “You two go back to camp, tell them we’re still looking and we will be back by sundown.” He said briefly glancing at me before following Daryl in the other direction.

“Um ok” Glenn said looking over at me curiously. I smiled at him reassuringly and gestured for him to lead the way.


	2. 2

I followed Glenn through the trees, cringing inwardly at how loud his footsteps were. I made sure to keep a look out for anything moving in the trees so we wouldn’t get snuck up on. 

“So how did you end up out here all alone?” Glenn asked me curiously.

‘It’s a long story' I signed and glanced over at Glenn. He was staring at me, looking completely lost. Oh yea. I reached to grab my note pad and realized that Daryl never gave it back to me. 

‘Sorry' I mouthed with a shrug.

“It’s ok” he said as we stepped through the tree line. We were met by several people standing at a guardrail on the side of the highway. These people were camped out in the middle of the highway? Were they insane?

“They’re still looking” Glenn said causing several unhappy expressions and one woman to burst into tears. “They said they would be back by sundown” he added.

“Who is she?” a guy with curly brown hair asked.

“This is Cooper Torres, she’s a friend.” Glenn said as he helped me over the guard rail. “We ran into her while we were out searching.”

“How did you manage to make it this far alone?” A skinny lady with long brown hair asked me. I shrugged and glanced over at Glenn, mentally asking him for help.

“Oh uh, she can’t talk” Glenn said receiving the same looks of disbelief as before. 

“What do you mean she can’t talk?” the curly hair guy asked.

“Just what I said man” Glenn explained earning a dirty look from the guy. “Look, it’s a long story and, no offense, but there’s kinda more important things going on right now” he sighed.

“Yea” he said glancing at me before walking away.

“Sorry, that’s Shane” Glenn said turning to look at me. “He’s been in kind of a bad mood lately”. I shrugged it off, not too concerned about it. I would be pretty curious too to be honest. 

Glenn introduced me to the other people in his group, and told me about how they had a camp just outside of Atlanta for a while until they got attacked. He also told me about how they had just narrowly escaped the CDC just before they got here. A few minutes later the older man named Dale came walking over to us.

“Hey Glenn, I could use some help with the RV. If you’re not too busy” he smiled over at me.

“Sure” Glenn nodded at Dale.

“There’s a bathroom in the RV, I’m sure Andrea could find you some clean clothes if you want to wash up some” Dale said to me.

I smiled and nodded, eager for a chance to wash the grime from the forest off of me. I followed Dale and Glenn to the RV where Dale asked Andrea to help me out. I followed her inside as she handed me bottle of water and a wash cloth. She went to the back of the RV for a minute before coming back with a stack of clean clothes in hand.

“The bathroom is right there” she said pointing to a door to the right.

‘Thank you' I mouthed, hoping she would understand.

“No problem, I’ll be outside if you need me” she said making her way over to the door. 

I stepped into the tiny bathroom and shut the door behind me. I was shocked when I glanced up at myself in the mirror. It felt like years since I had seen my reflection and I almost didn’t recognize myself. I was definitely much thinner now, and my brown eyes were dark and tired looking. I stripped off my clothes and pulled my knotted blonde hair down from the bun it had been in for well over a month. I poured some water on the wash cloth and started scrubbing the dirt off of myself. By the time I finished the bottle of water I had managed to get myself fairly clean. I ran my hands through my hair to get the knots out and pulled on the clean clothes. The bra Andrea had picked was on the small side, but the rest of the clothes seemed to be a little loose on me. I grabbed my old clothes and carried them outside with me and stuffed them into my backpack so I could try to wash them later.

I looked around at the group and everybody seemed to be busy doing something or another so I pulled my journal out of my bag and sat down against the back tire of the RV. I wanted to write down what I had remembered about Glenn before I had a chance to forget it. I opened the journal, pulled out the pen I kept tucked inside and started writing down everything I could remember about Glenn. I sat there for a while writing in my journal, it seemed that the more I wrote the more I would remember and I was pretty surprised. Glenn and I weren’t just coworkers, we were practically best friends. But what happened? If we were such good friends, why had it been so long since I had seen him before the end of the world? Or had it really not been that long and I just couldn’t remember? 

I sighed heavily and closed my journal. It seemed I had run the tap dry, the more I tried to remember the more I just gave myself a headache. I tossed the journal back into my bag and stood up to stretch, just now noticing that it was already almost sunset. I glanced over at the rest of the group that seemed to be getting pretty antsy waiting for Rick and Daryl to get back. Not a moment later, there was a rustling in the trees and everyone ran over to the guard rail. The moment I heard Carol crying, I knew they hadn’t found that little girl they were looking for. Her daughter, I reminded myself.

Rick and Daryl explained that they had lost the trail and didn’t think it would be a good idea to be out there searching in the dark. They promised Carol that first thing in the morning everyone would go out and search, which didn’t seem to make her feel any better. But who could blame her. A short while later some of the group had built a small fire to cook dinner on and most of us ended up huddled around it. 

“It’s Cooper, right?” Rick asked me curiously from across the fire. I looked up at him and nodded in response. “I’m pretty curious about your…condition” he said sounding like he was trying not to offend me.

“Yea, me too” Shane interjected. “How is it you can’t talk? How does something like that even happen?” 

I glanced over at Glenn wondering if he knew the story. It would be much easier if he could just tell them for me. He looked back at me in question “Do you want me to?” I nodded at him and waited, curious to see how much he knew.

“I don’t know the whole story, Cooper was always really vague about the whole thing” he said glancing over at me. “All she ever told me was that she was going somewhere with her family when they were hit by a drunk driver. She had some pretty serious injuries. Head trauma and nerve damage, right?” he looked over at me and I nodded. “Yea, anyway, the nerve damage paralyzed her vocal chords or something like that, that’s why she can’t talk.” He said. “She also has some trouble with her memories” he added.

“What about your family?” the little boy, Carl, asked curiously. I looked over at him and shook my head, which seemed to get the point across. 

Everyone went quiet after that and I thought about what Glenn had said. He said I was really vague about the accident, but if my memories now we’re anything to go by, that’s probably all I could remember at the time. I sighed, trying to ignore the feeling of eyes on me and waited for the food to finish cooking.

When it was time for bed, everybody wandered off to their different vehicles to get settled for the night. I noticed there were several people piling into the RV and decided against trying to cram myself in there too. I grabbed my back pack and started searching the nearby vehicles, finally finding a small car that had been abandoned before anyone had died inside. I tossed my backpack into the back seat and climbed in, pulling the door shut behind me and getting comfortable.

The next morning everyone gathered around in front of the RV eating a small breakfast while Rick Shane and Daryl planned the search for the day. The laid out an assortment of weapons on the hood of a nearby truck and told everyone to grab one. Andrea immediately started arguing about not having a gun while the rest of us each grabbed a knife and prepared for the search. Once everyone was ready we headed into the woods to look for the little girl.


	3. 3

We had been walking for a while and I was completely baffled by these people. I didn’t know how they had managed to survive for so long being as loud as they were. Maybe it was because I had been alone for so long, but I had gotten very used to the sound of silence. With this group I felt like we might as well have been driving a fire truck through here with the sirens blaring. From what I could tell, the only one who seemed to know how to move quietly through the woods was Daryl. He was even quieter than I was. I could tell by the way he moved and the fact that he could follow the little girl’s trail that he was a hunter. If there was anyone who could survive out here, it would definitely be him.

I held my knife in my hands, constantly scanning the trees for movement as we walked along. Everyone stopped walking when we came across a lone tent set up a few feet away. Rick and Daryl took Carol over to see if the girl might be hiding inside while the rest of the group stayed back. I moved to the back of the line while we waited to keep an eye out since no one else seemed to be paying attention. Everyone was so focused on Rick and Daryl, they wouldn’t even notice if something came up behind them.

A minute later Rick, Daryl, and Carol came back and told us that it wasn’t Sophia in the tent. Apparently some guy couldn’t handle things the way they were now and decided to just end his suffering. We all started walking again but a noise to the right caught my attention. I paused for a second, gripping my knife tightly and focusing on the trees to see if I could figure out what it was. Whatever it was it was, it was still too far away for me to see.

“Cooper?” Andrea’s voice broke my concentration “Everything ok?” 

I turned to look at her and noticed the whole group had stopped and was staring at me now. I nodded my head and waved my hand nonchalantly. I didn’t know what was out there, but there was no sense freaking everyone out over nothing. It could have just been a rabbit for all I know. We continued walking for a while and I continued to hear the noise from earlier. Whatever was out there was following us. No one else seemed to hear anything so I stayed to the back of the group, continuously scanning the trees for signs of movement. Whatever was out there, it stayed just far enough that it was always out of sight.

Suddenly, the loud ringing of church bells echoed through the trees and everyone froze in place. 

“Which way is it coming from?” Glenn asked as everyone looked around.

“That way” Rick said “I’m sure of it” he started walking in the direction of the now silenced bells. 

We all followed Rick, some people still debating as we got closer to where the sound had come from. I felt uneasiness rising within me as we moved along. Those bells were really loud, there was no doubt they would have attracted every biter within earshot. I know they were desperately searching for Carol’s daughter, but there would be no chance of us finding her if we were all dead. 

We broke through the tree line and stepped out into a little clearing. There sat a little white church right in the middle of the clearing with a small cemetery off to one side. We all cautiously approached the small church. Rick, Shane and Daryl lead the way up to the entrance, readying their weapons before opening the doors.

They quickly cleared the church and everyone split up to search the area. Carol, Lori and Carl went inside to pray for Sophia while we looked around. I moved back to the tree line, keeping an eye out for any unwanted visitors while everyone was busy. I was pacing back and forth, scanning the tree line when I heard a twig snap in the distance from the direction we had come from. I quickly ducked behind a tree and peeked around it to try and find the source of the noise. I was fairly certain whatever it was, was the same thing that was following us earlier. 

A small figure came from around a tree in the distance and I felt my stomach twist. There was a girl, a very clearly dead girl, slowly shuffling through the trees in our direction. She looked a little tall for a 12 year old, but I didn’t know what Sophia looked like so I couldn’t be sure. I turned quickly and rushed over to the church. I stopped near the doorway when I saw everyone was inside, I didn’t want to bust in there and freak everyone out. I quietly slipped through the doorway and approached the person standing closest to me, who just happened to be Daryl.

I stepped closer and tapped Daryl on the arm to get his attention. My mind briefly drifted over those muscular arms, but quickly snapped back when Daryl turned to look at me. I gestured for him to follow me, but he made no effort to move. He just stood there looking at me like I had suddenly sprouted a second head. I sighed and rolled my eyes, trying again to get him to come. Thankfully this time he followed me, glancing behind him cautiously as we exited the church. I lead him over to the edge of the trees where the young dead girl was just getting close to the clearing. I pointed to the girl and looked over at him in question. 

“It ain’t her” he said watching the dead girl shuffling closer. I felt relief wash over me at the news, this would have been a horrible way for Carol to find her daughter. He raised his crossbow and expertly fired an arrow directly through the girl’s forehead, causing her to crumple to the ground with a thud. We both stepped closer to the girls body and Daryl yanked the arrow from her head and reloaded his crossbow.

“Sophia’s younger” Daryl said looking back down at the dead girl “And she’s blonde” he added. I nodded as I stared at the girl’s decomposing face and matted black hair. She wasn’t Sophia, but she was still a young girl. This was somebody’s baby before, now she was just some anonymous, twice dead body laying on the forest floor.

“Don’t start thinking on it” Daryl said suddenly. “Nothing you can do anyway” he muttered as he turned and started walking back to the church. I sighed and slowly followed him back. I watched Daryl’s back as he walked, wondering how he knew what I was thinking earlier. I guess I was easier to read than I thought. 

As we got closer to the church I noticed that the group had moved outside. They were standing in a group all talking over each other about something.

“There you are! Where did you two go?” Lori sighed in relief as we came closer.

“Thought we found something” Daryl said vaguely “Turned out to be nothing” he said bluntly, shutting down any hopes the group might have had. It was better that way though, there was no need for Carol to see that. It would only make things harder on her right now.

“Alright, we need to keep looking” Rick said solemnly. 

He decided that he would split off with Shane and search in one direction while the rest of us would search in a different direction. Carl wanted to go along with Rick and Shane and after some convincing on Rick’s part, Lori hesitantly agreed. 

Rick and Daryl had decided that we should follow the river to look for Sophia, so that’s what we were doing. We moved in an unorganized line as we followed Daryl through the trees. It was getting hotter outside and I could tell everyone was getting tired by how they were slowing down. I walked around the slowpokes and moved next to Glenn who was actually keeping pace with Daryl pretty well. 

“You’re looking pretty comfortable in this heat” Glenn joked half-heartedly.

I smiled over at him and shrugged. The heat never seemed to bother me much, but the cold was another story. 

“How long have you been out here by yourself?” Glenn asked curiously.

I thought back to the group I was with at the very beginning, I was only with them for a few weeks before they abandoned me, I had been totally alone since then. I counted in my head and figured it had to have been a couple of months since then at least. I turned to Glenn and held up two fingers.

“Two weeks?” he asked.

I shook my head no and spread my hands apart in a ‘bigger' gesture.

“Two months?” Glenn asked in amazement and I nodded. “That’s insane” he mumbled. 

I wanted to ask Glenn more about our friendship, but I still hadn’t gotten my notepad back from Daryl. I looked up ahead at Daryl as he walked through the trees looking for any sign of Sophia. Now’s as good a time as ever I thought. I sped up to catch up with Daryl and tapped him gently on the arm to get his attention.

“What?” he mumbled glancing at me from the corner of his eye. I held out one hand flat and used my other to mimic writing, hoping he would understand what I wanted.

“Rick has it” he said simply as he continued looking around. I sighed and nodded, slowing down to walk next to Glenn again. I guess it would just have to wait.


	4. 4

A few minutes later a loud gunshot broke through the silence. Glenn and I stopped and looked back at the rest of the group. Lori was looking unsettled as she scanned the trees. 

“That was a gunshot” she said.

“We all heard it” Daryl said gruffly, seeming annoyed that everyone had stopped moving.

Lori snapped back asking why they would only shoot one time and Daryl replied with a pretty lame excuse that they had probably just shot a walker. Needless to say, no one was going for that one. Lori argued that neither Rick or Shane would risk a gunshot, that if it was a walker they would do it quietly. Though I was really starting to question that by how loud they were talking right now. 

“Shouldn’t they have caught up to us by now?” Carol interjected.

“Nothing we can do about it anyway” Daryl said finally. “Cant be running around chasing echoes.” 

“So, what do we do then?” Carol asked.

“Same as we’ve been. Beat the bush for Sophia. Work our way back to the highway” Daryl said turning to continue walking. Glenn and I started walking too, but we only made it a few steps before we heard more talking. We paused and looked back noticing that Carol and Andrea had stopped walking again. I sighed in frustration at the women. Weren’t they supposed to be searching for a missing child? How could they expect to find her if they kept stopping to chat.

“We’re all hoping and praying with you, for what it’s worth” Andrea said to Carol.

“I’ll tell ya what it’s worth” Daryl’s voice laced with irritation as he stalked over to them. “Not a damn thing. It’s a waste of time, all this hoping and praying. We’re gonna locate that little girl! She’s gonna be just fine!” he said turning away from them. “Am I the only one Zen around here? Good lord!” he threw over his shoulder as he went. Zen? Really? I tried to hold back my laugh as he walked away from the women.

“You got something to say?” Daryl asked sarcastically as he walked past me. I rolled my eyes, deciding to ignore his attitude, and fell into step behind him and the others followed in silence.

“How much farther?” Andrea huffed in exhaustion. It was getting late now so we were heading back to the highway. 

“Not much” Daryl said. “Maybe a hundred yards, as the crow flies.”

“Too bad we’re not crows” she mumbled, slowing down and falling behind a little. I sighed as we moved along, my legs were starting to get tired from all the walking and I was getting pretty hungry. 

I jumped at the sound of Andrea’s frantic screaming. We all immediately turned around and ran in her direction to help. Suddenly someone came barreling through on a horse. She swung a baseball bat at the walker that had Andrea pinned and knocked it clean off of her. 

“Lori Grimes?” she called out as she slowed the horse to a stop.

“I’m Lori” she said stepping forward nervously.

“Rick sent me, you’ve gotta come now!” the girl said.

“What?” Lori said in confusion.

“There’s been an accident. Carl was shot. He’s alive, but you gotta come now!” she said in a rush. Lori immediately dropped her backpack and rushed over to the girl on the horse.

“Wait! We don’t know this girl!” Daryl said in disbelief as Lori climbed onto the horse. “You can’t get on that horse!” 

The girl on the horse quickly explained that Rick told her where our people were and explained how to get to her family’s farm. I glanced over at Glenn who was watching the girl ride away with an awed look. I giggled and nudged him playfully which made him blush. After Daryl took out his frustrations on the walker that had pinned Andrea, we were once again on our way back to the highway. When we finally made it back the sun was setting, casting an orange glow over us. We walked up to Dale who had stayed behind with T-dog while we were out.

“Carl’s been shot” Glenn said to Dale quickly. Glenn explained what happened with the girl on the horse who took Lori and told us the news. Dale looked shocked and immediately questioned Daryl for letting Lori go off with a stranger.

“Climb down out of my asshole man!” Daryl growled in frustration as he stepped over the guard rail. “Rick sent her. She knew Lori’s name, and Carl’s.” 

Dale watched Daryl walk away and immediately turned to Andrea to ask about the scream he heard. I stopped listening, hopping over the guard rail and going over to the car I had claimed. I opened the back door and flopped down on the seat to relax for a little while. 

I woke up surprised to see that it was completely dark outside I moved to slide out of the seat but my feet hit the door. I glanced at the door curiously, I could have sworn I left that open. I decided it wasn’t really important and opened the door. Once I was upright I stretched out my sore muscles and closed the car door behind me. I decided to head up to the RV and see if anyone was still up, and maybe try to get something to eat.

“Cooper?” Dale questioned from the top of the RV and shined a flashlight down at me. I shielded my eyes from the bright light and waved at him. A second later I was surrounded by darkness again when Dale turned off his light. 

“Sorry, I would hate to mistake you for a walker.” He chuckled. “Why don’t you come up here, I have something for you” he said moving back to the chair he had set up there. I walked around the back of the RV and climbed up the ladder. I hoisted myself up to the top of the RV and sat down next to Dale. 

“Here” Dale said handing me a bowl. “We saved you some food, though it’s probably cold by now.” 

I smiled and took the bowl of food. I was so hungry, I didn’t care if the food was raw, I was just happy to have something to eat. I could hear Carol’s muffled cries coming from inside the RV as I ate and I couldn’t help but feel bad for her. The chances of us finding her daughter were getting slimmer with every passing day. I finished off my food and set my bowl aside, happy that my stomach wasn’t growling anymore. I sat in comfortable silence with Dale for a few more minutes then stood up. 

“See you later” Dale said as I moved over to the ladder. I nodded and waved goodbye as I climbed down. I rounded the RV, walking back toward my car when the door swung open suddenly and scared the crap out of me. I released a shaky breath and held my hand to my chest, feeling my heart beating rapidly. Andrea stepped out of the RV and looked over at me in surprise. 

“Well, looks like sleeping beauty finally woke up” she joked.

“Good” Daryl said stepping out of the RV. “You can make yourself useful” Daryl said handing me a flashlight. I took it and looked at him in confusion. 

“Where are y’all going?” Dale called down from the roof. 

“We’re going for a walk” Daryl said. “Shine some light into the forest. If Sophia’s out there, we’ll give her something to look at.” Dale didn’t seem too happy but Daryl had already made up his mind, so nothing Dale had to say really mattered. 

“Come on” Daryl said, switching on his flashlight and walking ahead. Andrea and I looked at each other for a second before doing the same. We walked along the side of the road for a while before Daryl decided to head into the woods. We walked through the trees, Andrea on one side of Daryl and me on the other as we all shined our flashlights into the darkness.

“You really think we're gonna find Sophia?” Andrea suddenly asked.

“You got that look on your face same as everybody else” Daryl said. “What the hell's wrong with you people? We just started looking.”

“Well, do you?” Andrea asked.

“It ain't the mountains of Tibet. It's Georgia” Daryl said in a ‘duh' tone. “She could be holed up in a farmhouse somewhere. People get lost and they survive. It happens all the time.”

“She's only 12” Andrea argued.

“Hell, I was younger than her and I got lost” Daryl said suddenly. I glanced at him curiously, he didn’t strike me as the type of person to go about sharing personal information very often. 

“Nine days in the woods eating berries, wiping my ass with poison oak.” He said scanning the trees with his flashlight.

“They found you?” Andrea asked.

“My old man was off on a bender with some waitress. Merle was doing another stint in juvie. Didn't even know I was gone” Daryl said as if the whole thing was no big deal. I continued walking, shining my flashlight into the darkness ahead of me as I listened to Daryl’s story.

“I made my way back though” he continued “Went straight into the kitchen and made myself a sandwich. No worse for wear” Daryl said matter-of-factly “Except my ass itched something awful” he added. A laugh escaped before I covered my mouth with my hand and looked over at Andrea who then started laughing.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry” Andrea said trying to hold back laughter. “That is a terrible story” she said shakily. I looked over at Andrea in amusement and we both started laughing again. I could have sworn I heard Daryl chuckle also.

“The only difference” Daryl said “Sophia’s got people looking for her. I call that an advantage.”

My face fell after Daryl said that, because he was wrong, he couldn’t be more wrong. When he was lost, there weren’t undead monsters roaming around eating people. If anything, she was at a huge disadvantage. What chance could any little kid have, lost and alone in a world full of monsters. I jumped slightly when Daryl nudged me with his elbow. I looked at him in confusion as he gave me a hard look. 

“Quit that” he said sternly and walked ahead without another word. I stared after him, completely baffled. What was he a mind reader or something? Stay out of my head Dixon! 

We walked in silence for a while until we heard rustling coming from the trees ahead. We headed in that direction, Daryl with his crossbow ready.

“What the hell?” he said shining his flashlight up at a walker hanging by his neck from a tree. Andrea immediately stopped walking and doubled over gagging. Daryl and I continued looking around as Andrea took some deep breaths.

“Got bit. Fever hit. World gone to shit. Might as well quit.” Daryl said reading something from the tree the walker was hanging from. “Dumbass didn't know enough to shoot himself in the head. Turned himself into a big swinging piece of bait” he said looking up at the walker “And a mess.” Andrea groaned as she bent over with her hands on her knees.

“You all right?” Daryl asked looking back at her.

“Trying not to puke” Andrea sighed.

“Go ahead if you gotta” Daryl said looking back up at the walker that was now flailing around desperately and reaching for us. 

I decided to go check the tent for anything that could be useful while Daryl and Andrea continued talking. The tent door was partially unzipped so I pulled it open slightly and peeked inside. The tent was empty so I slipped inside and started looking. There was a bag in the corner that was stuffed with clothes and various other things. As I dug through the bag I came across a lightweight cotton jacket. It was an ugly olive green color, but the nights were starting to get chilly and I didn’t have anything to keep warm. I pulled the jacket on and zipped it up, it was definitely too big for me, but I could work with it. There was a backpack sitting next to the clothes bag that looked promising. I opened it and dumped the contents out on the ground. There were several bottles of water, granola bars, beef jerky, several bags of trail mix, and a few other things. 

“The hell are you doing in here?” Daryl said roughly as he stepped into the tent. I turned and grinned up at him pointing to the pile of food and water on the ground in front of me. 

“Damn” Daryl said. “Well, grab it and let’s head back” he said before leaving the tent. I quickly threw everything back into the backpack and threw it over my shoulders. 

“Seriously?” Andrea said as I stepped out of the tent. I looked over at her confused as she stared at me like I was crazy. “What’s with the jacket?” She asked. I looked down at my new jacket. It was pretty big, going down to the middle of my thighs and the sleeves swallowed my hands, but other than that it was perfectly fine. It didn’t even have any holes in it. I looked back up at her and shrugged, shined my flashlight back the way we came and started walking. 

When we made it back to the RV, Carol was clearly upset that we hadn’t found her daughter. I sighed and slipped off the backpack that I had found. I pulled out a bottle of water and a granola bar and held it out to Daryl. He grabbed the bag from me and I immediately turned and started walking to my car. It was getting late and I was getting tired again. I tossed the water and granola bar on the floor so I could have it for breakfast and curled up on the back seat to get some sleep.


	5. 5

Daryl’s POV:  
I stepped out of the RV with an arm full of supplies. We made a sign for Sophia on the window of a car and we’re leaving some food and something to drink, just in case she finds her way back after we leave. 

“Are we all set?” Andrea asked stepping out of the RV.

“Just about” 

“Where’s Cooper?” She asked looking around.

“Where do ya think?” I glanced in the direction of the car she had been sleeping in wondering how the hell anyone could sleep so damn much. As soon as we got back yesterday she ran off to that car of hers and slept the rest of the afternoon. She’s lucky Dale saved her a plate of food last night or she would have gone hungry when she finally woke up. 

“What’s the hold up?” Dale asked from the door of the RV.

“Gotta wake up sleeping beauty” Andrea said sounding annoyed. 

I snorted at her and started walking away. It was obvious that Andrea was trying to act like she didn’t like the girl, and her attitude was getting ridiculous. She needed to cut that shit out before it got her into trouble. I walked up to the little white car that the girl was sleeping in. ‘Cooper’ I reminded myself, wondering who the hell would name a girl Cooper anyway. I looked through the window at the girl curled up in the back seat, her dark eyelashes rested against her lightly tanned cheeks and her long blonde hair fell around her in soft waves. She was still wearing that jacket, which was fucking crazy since it was hotter than Satan’s balls today. I remembered yesterday, walking through the woods, sweating my ass off, and there she was just as cool as a fucking cucumber. Like it was a cool spring day or some shit. I pulled the door open and looked inside, wondering how I was gonna get this girl to wake up. 

“Hey” I called “Wake up!” but she didn’t move. “Come on, get up!” I nearly yelled but she still didn’t budge. I pulled the door open further and slammed it as hard as I could, feeling satisfied when she jumped up in a panic. I pulled the door open again and she looked up at me quickly, her big brown eyes like a deer in the headlights. 

“Time to get up” I said. Her eyebrows pulled together in confusion and I could tell she was wondering what was going on. I had gotten pretty good at reading people after years of running with Merle, but this girl might as well have had a billboard on her forehead with her thoughts printed on it. 

“We’re pulling up stakes, heading over to that farm to reconnect with our people” I explained quickly. “Come on” I said and started walking back to the RV. 

I could hear her shuffling around for a minute, probably grabbing her stuff, then soft footsteps as she started following me across the asphalt. I was surprised by how quietly she moved when we were out there searching, but at the same time, I wasn’t. I knew how quiet she could be when we first found her. It’s not easy to steak up on me, but when she rounded that tree...all I can say is she’s lucky that was supposed a warning shot. Even last night when she slipped into that tent, of it weren’t for the flashlight shining through, I wouldn’t have known she was in there digging around.

She couldn’t talk, she moved quietly, walked softly, hell even her laugh was just a soft breathy sound. She was the epitome of silence and I’m not sure why, but I found it strangely comforting. As a man who has always taken solace in silence, her presence was calming and peaceful--Which was fucking stupid! I didn’t know shit about this girl, other than what Glenn had told us the other night. She was a stranger. I could just imagine the shit that woulda been spewing out of Merle’s mouth right now if he were here. I sat on my brother’s motorcycle, watching Cooper from the corner of my eye as she walked past and climbed into the RV. 

Cooper’s POV:   
I could feel Daryl’s eyes burning holes through the back of my head as I climbed into the RV and shut the door. Something seemed to have him in a bad mood already today and I didn’t really want to make things worse. I sat down at the table, glancing around when I realized that only Andrea, Dale, and Carol were there. I heard Daryl’s motorcycle roar to life and the RV started moving forward. Where were Glenn and T-dog? I looked at Andrea and Carol, neither of them seemed concerned with their absence. Maybe they had gone ahead of us? I sighed softly and looked out of the window as we headed toward the farm. I thought about Carl, hoping he was okay. How in the world did he get shot anyway? I hoped, for Rick and Lori’s sake, that there was someone on that farm who could help.

A little while later we were pulling up to a big white farm house that looked like it was pulled from a painting. When the RV came to a stop we all stepped out, eager to find out what was going on. We all walked up to the porch where Rick and Lori were standing with Glenn, T-dog and several other people, who all probably lived on this farm.

“How is he?” Dale asked nervously.

“He’ll pull through” Lori said “Thanks to Herschel and his people” 

“And Shane” Rick added, looking over at Shane who was wearing some oversized clothes and was sporting a new buzz cut. 

After several hugs and comforting words, they explained that Carl had been shot during a hunting accident. Apparently the man who shot him felt bad so he decided to help Shane get supplies for his surgery, but hadn’t made it back alive. Herschel, the old man who owned the farm, was getting ready to hold a small funeral for the man who died. I thought it was weird that we were attending a funeral for someone we didn’t even know, but he had helped save Carl’s life so I suppose it was the least we could do. If not for him, then at least for the sake of his wife, who was looking pretty distraught as we moved over to a large pile of rocks. 

Everyone gathered around the pile, which looked like it was supposed to serve as a memorial. I stood next to Glenn and watched as Herschel opened his Bible and flipped through the pages. I glanced over when I felt someone come stand on my other side and saw Daryl standing silently with his crossbow still slung over his shoulder. He looked like he was in a better mood than earlier, though I wouldn’t go so far as to say he was happy. He looked like he was thinking about something. I turned back forward when Herschel started talking and paid attention to the scripture he had chosen to read for the funeral. 

It wasn’t sad for me, but I felt horrible for the man’s wife who was crying softly as Herschel spoke. She looked completely broken. Her husband was probably all she had left in this world and now he was gone. I know I should have been able to sympathize with her, I should have known the sadness of losing loved ones, of being left all alone, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. As sad as it was to say, I couldn’t really remember my family. I know I had a mom and a dad, and a brother, but I couldn’t remember anything about them. I couldn’t remember their faces, or how they sounded, or even what kind of people they were, and I felt like that was the worst thing of all. Everyone always says your loved ones live on in your heart or something like that, but how could they when I had no memory of them. I felt like I had let them slip away forever. I might as well have always been alone in this world, because I couldn’t remember a time when I wasn’t. 

I was snapped out of my thoughts when Shane started talking. He was retelling what happened on the run when the man, Otis I heard Shane say, had died. I heard Daryl snort quietly as Shane spoke and looked at him curiously. He had a scrutinizing look on his face as he watched Shane carefully. I guess he noticed me watching him because he looked back at me. I raised my eyebrow and glanced over at Shane then back at him curiously. He just shook his head and looked forward when Herschel started speaking again. I did the same, wondering what Daryl could possibly be thinking about Shane.

~•~•~•~  
So I tried to throw a little Daryl pov in there, but I don’t think I’m very good at writing Daryl so it was kind of short. Sorry guys.


	6. 6

After the funeral Rick and Lori went back inside to be with Carl. Herschel and the rest of his family went back inside also. Shane gathered the rest of us around the RV and told us that we would be setting up camp over by a small group of trees across the yard. Dale and Glenn started up the RV and drove it across the yard, parking it where Shane had told us to go. I heard Daryl’s motorcycle roar to life as he moved it over there also. The rest of us walked that way and started setting up a small camp. 

I didn’t have a tent, so I decided to help by setting up Rick and Lori’s tent for them since they were busy watching over Carl. Once I had their tent set up I moved their things inside and set it all down neatly inside so they wouldn’t have much to do. I was all finished and Zipping their tent up when someone walked up behind me. 

“Hey Cooper” Glenn said casually. I smiled and waved at him in greeting. “We have an extra tent if you want it. It’s kind of small though” he said uncertainly. My smile widened as I nodded at him. 

“Okay, follow me” he said as he started back toward the RV. 

“You giving her Jim’s tent?” Dale asked as we walked past him.

“Yea” Glenn said as he opened a storage hatch on the RV and pulled out the bundled tent. “Someone might as well get some use out of it” he said quietly.

“No sense leaving a young lady to sleep outside when we have an extra tent” Dale said with a smile as Glenn handed me the bundle. 

‘Thank you' I mouthed to both of them.

“Not a problem” Dale chuckled. 

I decided to set my tent up a little away from everyone else’s. I found a good spot where the dirt was nice and level. I smiled to myself and made quick work of setting up. Glenn wasn’t kidding when he said the tent was small, it was definitely only meant for one person, but that wasn’t a problem, since it was just me. I went to the RV to grab my backpack and moved it into my tent. When I was finished I pulled off my jacket and put it with my other things. It was pretty warm out today, so I didn’t really need to wear it anymore.

A few minutes later I decided I’d go check on Rick and Lori with Carl. I walked up to the house, stopping awkwardly on the porch just outside of the door. Should I knock? I know they were letting us stay here, but this was still their house. Even in the apocalypse, its pretty rude to just go waltzing into someone’s house whenever you feel like it, right? I guess I zoned out a little too long because the door swung open suddenly and smacked me right in the face. 

“Oh my goodness, are you ok?!” a young girl with light blonde hair asked frantically. I smiled and nodded, rubbing my sore forehead. I hope that won’t bruise, that would look pretty silly. 

“Are you looking for Rick and Lori?” she asked curiously. I nodded at her, glad she was being so friendly after I just stood outside their door for five minutes like a creep.

“I’ll show you where they are. I’m Beth by the way” she smiled and held her hand out to me. I shook her hand with a smile, feeling bad when she looked at me expectantly. I was about to try and an give some kind of apology when we heard heavy footsteps coming over to us.

“Cooper” Rick said coming to a stop near us “Here, sorry it’s taken so long to get back to you” he said pulling my notepad from his back pocket and handing it to me. I smiled up at him gratefully and flipped it open, pausing when I realized I didn’t have anything to write with. Rick chuckled and held out a pen for me. I quickly wrote down that I’d set things up for him and Lori so they wouldn’t have to worry about it.

“Thank you Cooper” he said with gratitude. I asked him how Carl was doing and he said he was sleeping so I decided not to disturb him. When Rick walked away I turned back to Beth but paused when I realized she was gone. She must have left while I was talking to Rick. I felt bad, I didn’t mean to ignore her like that. I sighed and stepped back outside. I noticed Glenn was sitting on the far side of the porch talking to the girl with short brown hair that picked up Lori on the horse. He was smiling and blushing like a teenager and I felt a smile spread across my face. They were adorable together and I silently cheered Glenn on as I walked away from the house. 

A few people went about making a fire when it started getting late and Carol said she would cook some dinner for us. When the food was ready we all gathered around the fire to get a plate of food. I smiled at Carol when she handed me a plate and went to sit in one of the chairs around the fire. Most of them were full but I noticed the chairs around Daryl were empty. I had noticed that people tended to gravitate away from him, almost like they were afraid of him or something. I wasn’t gonna lie, he was a pretty intimidating guy, but he didn’t seem like a bad person. He was just really rough around the edges. I walked over to where Daryl was sitting alone and plopped down in the chair next to him. I could feel someone, or maybe more than one person, watching me but I decided to ignore it and focused on my food. 

After we ate we all stayed around the fire as the sun went down. I watched in amusement as the group shared stories and talked to each other, with the exception of Carol, who had gone to bed early. I could tell she was barely holding it together, constantly worrying about her little girl who was still lost and alone out in the woods. The rest of the group, however, seemed to be in good spirits tonight. Glenn was currently sharing stories about some of the strangest encounters he had when delivering pizzas and everyone was laughing. I even heard Daryl chuckle a few times. 

After a while the group started heading to their tents, one by one until the only people left were me, Daryl and Shane. Daryl and I sat in comfortable silence, but Shane seemed to be brooding over something. I watched him warily as he would glance over at the farm house every few minutes, his mood steadily getting worse. After about thirty minutes Shane suddenly stood up and stalked toward the house without a word. Once he was far enough away I released a sigh of relief. Shane was clearly dealing with some demons, but the way he was acting was pretty unsettling.

“Don’t mind him” Daryl mumbled from beside me. I looked over at him curiously as he kicked his feet out and relaxed in his chair. I pulled my notepad and pen from my back pocket and flipped it open.

‘What’s going on with him?’ I wrote and held the notepad out to Daryl. He just looked at me from the corner of his eye, not seeming too motivated to read what I wrote. I waved the notepad at him impatiently and he sighed heavily and took it from my hand. He glanced down at it and let out a humorless laugh.

“He’s pining over a woman that ain’t his” Daryl said handing the notepad back to me. “And probably dealing with a bout of conscience on top of it” he said looking into the fire. My eyes widened in understanding as I looked over at the house. The only woman over there was Lori. But I thought Rick and Shane were best friends. That’s got to be complicated. My mind went over to what else Daryl had said. Conscience? I looked back at Daryl curiously and picked up my notepad to write down another question, but he started taking before I even had a chance.

“He’s good at telling stories.” He muttered. “Aint no way things went down with Otis the way he said. He’s sellin shit, and I ain’t buyin it” he said before standing up and walking over to his tent. I guess he had enough talking for tonight. I decided to do the same and went to my tent to lay down.

I woke up the next morning feeling cold and sore. Whatever I was laying on was really hard and uncomfortable. I opened my eyes and sat up quickly, looking around in confusion.

Why am I in a tent?


	7. 7

I felt confusion and fear as I stood up quickly and rushed out of the tent. My heart beat increased as I looked around me. It looked like I was on a farm, but why in the world would I be on a farm? I tried to remember something, anything, but everything was blank. I staggered around, desperately trying to figure out what was going on. I froze in shock when I was met with several curious stares. A group of strange people were sitting around a campfire, eating breakfast like it was just a normal day. 

“Cooper? Are you ok?” a young Asian man asked with a look of concern on his face. Who was this guy? How did he know my name?

I opened my mouth to ask him what was going on but nothing came out. I gasped in shock and grabbed my throat. Why couldn’t I talk? I continued trying to talk, over and over again, desperately willing a sound, any sound, to escape my lips but nothing did. I felt tears form as I started to panic. 

“Cooper?!” the Asian man said as he jumped up and ran over to me, followed closely by a man with a crossbow. Suddenly, all of the strangers were surrounding me with looks of fear and worry on their faces. It was terrifying and overwhelming.

I felt tears fall down my cheeks as my breathing became erratic and I started shaking. The Asian stepped closer to me and I backed away quickly. Who the hell were these people? Why am I on a farm in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of strange people? Did they kidnap me? Why couldn’t I remember anything? And why the hell couldn’t I talk? Fear and panic took over as I stared at these strange people who continued to try to talk to me.

“What the hell’s wrong with ya girl?” The man with the crossbow asked me forcefully. A silent sob escaped as I backed away in fear.

“Glenn, what’s happening?” a blonde lady asked.

“I don’t know!” the Asian said with fear in his eyes. “I’ve never seen her like this before!” 

“Someone get the doc!” the crossbow man yelled angrily, making me flinch, and the blonde lady ran away quickly.

I felt my chest get really tight, like I was having a heart attack and I couldn’t breathe. I clutched my chest as I desperately gasped for air, tears still pouring down my face. Everything blurred together and I vaguely noticed more people run over to me.

“She’s having a panic attack” I overheard a steady voice say before I zoned out again, still crying and trying to catch a breath.

Suddenly crossbow guy walked up to me and grabbed my arms, holding them tightly as some other people started coming toward me. A sudden, overwhelming terror came over me, they were gonna hurt me! I began yanking and flailing around frantically as the crossbow guy tried to keep his hold on me. I twisted around in his grasp until my arms hurt, feeling relief flood through me when he let me go. I immediately tried to run, but in an instant crossbow guy had me again. He grabbed me from behind, pinned my arms down to my sides and wrapped his arms around me tightly in a bear hug. I immediately started kicking and struggling against him, until another guy grabbed hold of my legs, holding them tightly against him so I couldn’t move. 

I felt the hot tears start coming again as an old man approached me holding something in his hand. I began wiggling around again, desperately trying to get away despite being held in the crossbow man’s iron grip. The old man grabbed the waistband of my pants and started pulling it down and terror consumed me. Oh my god, they were gonna violate me! I thrashed around wildly until a third person grabbed my waist and held me tightly. I sobbed silently as the old man pulled the top of my pants down an inch or two then I felt something, almost like a pinch, in my lower hip. Then he pulled my pants back up and stepped away. I looked over at him in confusion as a warm numbness came over me. What the hell did this guy do to me?!

My thoughts raced as I slowly lost control of my body. The two holding my legs and waist slowly released me and crossbow guy started to loosen his hold on me. He tried setting me on my feet, but as soon as he let go I crumpled like a ragdoll and he had to catch me before I face planted into the dirt.

“What the hell did ya do to her?” crossbow guy asked the old man accusingly.

“I gave her a mild tranquilizer” he stated. “We needed to calm her down before she hurt herself or someone else. It’ll wear off in a few hours, but for now we should bring her inside so I can monitor her condition.”

Everything was quiet for a second, then all of a sudden, crossbow guy scooped me up and started carrying me over to a big white house. I felt exhausted. My mind started going fuzzy and my eyes were getting heavy, and suddenly all I wanted to do was just sleep. I closed my eyes and sighed softly, my head rested against crossbow guy’s chest, and allowed sleep to take over.

~

“Cooper!” I heard my brother Connor call impatiently from the doorway. “Aren’t you ready yet?” 

“Yea, I’m coming!” I called as I came down the stairs. 

“Bout time” he sighed as we stepped outside and locked the door behind us.

“Cooper, Connor, get a move on!” I heard my dad call from the car. We both climbed into the back seat of the car and my dad quickly pulled out of the driveway. 

“Cooper, what on earth took you so long?” my mom asked. She turned to look at me from the front seat, her blonde hair was shining in the sunlight and her blue eyes were focused on me.

“I forgot my phone” I shrugged.

“Yea right” Connor said from beside me. I turned to my twin brother, glaring playfully. He was tall, with the same skin tone as me but with dads black hair and mom’s blue eyes. I was always jealous of his eyes, he got the pretty blues while I got stuck dad’s muddy brown eyes. “Your phone is practically glued to your hands, there’s no way you forgot it.” He teased. 

I opened my mouth to comeback with a smart mouthed comment but instead I was jerked forward harshly. Everything was a blur, the sounds of crushing metal and tires squealing. Glass flew everywhere as the car was thrown around violently. 

When everything finally stopped, I was upside down, dangling by my seatbelt. My head was throbbing and my whole body was sore. I looked over to my brother, who was dangling motionlessly beside me. Everything was getting fuzzy, I felt unconsciousness creeping over me. I reached over to try and wake Connor up, but before I could even touch him, everything went black.


	8. 7.5

So I decided to throw this little extra in for Flanduslover1 on FF.net who specially requested it. Hope you like it :)  
~•~•~•~•~

Daryl POV:

We were all sitting around eating some breakfast before we went out to search the woods for Sophia again. Now that Rick’s boy was doing better he was stepping up again, saying he wanted to organize a search party. I noticed something caught everyone’s attention off to the left of the camp. I don’t usually give a shit what these people do, but curiosity got the best of me this time. I looked up and saw Cooper walking this way, but something wasn’t right. She was huddled in on herself, looking all around her like she was lost or something. When she finally looked at us she froze like a frightened animal. What the hell was she doing?

“Cooper? Are you ok?” Glenn asked, looking worried. 

Something definitely wasn’t right. The look on her face, it was like she had never seen any of us before. She started moving her mouth like she was trying to say something. But she can’t talk, why is she even trying? Panic flashed across her face and her hand flew to her throat. What the hell? She started freaking out and crying, like she was trying to force words to come out or something. Had she lost it or something? Before I realized it I was on my feet.

“Cooper?!” Glenn said as he jumped up too and we both rushed over, everybody else was hot on our heels. 

She went completely rigid, her big brown eyes wide with fear as she looked around at us like we were walkers coming to eat her or something. Glenn stepped closer and she immediately jumped back. She was crying and shaking like a leaf, her breathing got all crazy like she was hyperventilating. What was going on with her?

“What the hell’s wrong with ya girl?” I asked, maybe a little too harshly. I felt my stomach twist as she flinched away from me and sobbed. What the hell were we supposed to do for her? How were we supposed to know what’s going on when she couldn’t fucking tell us anything? I had no idea what was going on in her head, for once, and that was surprisingly irritating.

“Glenn, what’s happening?” Andrea asked.

“I don’t know! I’ve never seen her like this before!” he said in a panicky tone. I looked at Cooper who was just getting worse by the second and all of us just standing here wasn’t helping her any.

“Someone go get the doc!” I said angrily and Andrea immediately ran to the house. 

I kept my eye on Cooper while we waited. She was still shaking and crying and she had started gasping for breath. What the hell was taking them so long? Just a second later Andrea came back with Herschel.

“She’s having a panic attack” he said as he rushed over. “I have something to calm her down, but someone needs to hold her still.” 

Everyone immediately turned to me. What? I felt uncomfortable under their expectant stares, but I decided it was probably better than Shane or someone else doing it. I shook my head and quickly walked over to Cooper and grabbed her arms to try and hold her still. The minute I grabbed her, it was clear on her face, she was terrified. I tried to keep my hold on her as she fought against me, yanking and twisting in my grip. I was afraid of breaking her arm so I let her go. Mistake. She immediately tried to run. I caught up to her and grabbed her again, wrapping my arms around her tightly so she couldn’t get loose. 

I felt her tears hitting my arms as she kicked and thrashed around. My stomach twisted uncomfortably, It didn’t feel right manhandling a woman like this but we had to do something to calm her down so we could figure out what the hell was going on. Shane ran over and grabbed her legs as the doc came closer. He grabbed her pants and tugged slightly. Wait what the hell? What was he trying to do to her? Cooper must have thought the same because she started struggling again and I had to tighten my grip so I wouldn’t drop her. God damn this girl had a lot of fight in her. 

Andrea came and held Cooper’s waist as the doc tugged her pants down and quickly stuck her with a needle. When he was done he fixed her pants and stepped back, watching her carefully. Almost instantly I felt Cooper’s breathing slowing down and she quit kicking and struggling. Shane and Andrea let her go and I hesitantly loosened my hold on her but didn’t let her go yet, just in case she tried anything again. When I was satisfied that she was done struggling I put her down and let her go, but I had to snatch her again when she went completely limp. Her eyes were still open, but she was drooping in my arms like she was unconscious or something. This was too much. He said it was just supposed to calm her down, not do this to her!

“What the hell did ya do to her?” I asked Herschel angrily.

“I gave her a mild tranquilizer” Herschel said calmly. “We needed to calm her down before she hurt herself or someone else. It’ll wear off in a few hours, but for now we should bring her inside so I can monitor her condition.”

I glared at him angrily and looked down at Cooper. I tucked an arm under her legs and picked her up gently. Herschel started walking back to the house and I followed slowly. I went stiff when I felt Cooper’s warm breath tickle my neck and her head lean against my chest. I glanced down at her from the corner of my eye and relaxed when I realized that she was asleep.

“What happened?” Herschel’s oldest girl asked as she held the door open for us.

“Don’t know” I growled as I moved past her. 

“In here” Herschel said opening a door just ahead of me. I followed him into the little bedroom and laid Cooper down on the bed in the middle of the room. I stepped back so he could check on her, but I wasn’t goin nowhere. I leaned against the wall, glaring angrily as the doc listened to heart or some shit like that. 

“Her heartbeat is steady and her breathing is even. That’s good.” He said quietly. 

“What the hell did ya give her?” I growled out. “You said it was supposed to calm her down, not knock her out!” 

“I told you, I gave her a tranquilizer” he said standing up and looking at me. No shit asshole. “I had to guess the dosage, it was a little more than I thought it was. She should still be up within a few hours. Until then, it’s best if we just let her rest.” He said and walked out of the room. 

I glared at the door after he left, stupid asshole could have killed her. I looked over at Cooper who was still passed out on the bed. Her face was red and puffy from all that crying she did out there. What the hell was that shit anyway? A minute later there was a knock on the door and Rick came in. 

“We’re getting ready to go search” he said looking over at Cooper for a second. “You coming?” I looked at him and thought for a second. We still had to find Sophia. Cooper ain’t goin nowhere right now. 

“Yea” I said and followed Rick outside.


	9. 8

When everything finally stopped, I was upside down, dangling by my seatbelt. My head was throbbing and my whole body was sore. I looked over to my brother, who was dangling motionlessly beside me. Everything was getting fuzzy, I felt unconsciousness creeping over me. I reached over to try and wake Connor up, but before I could even touch him, everything went black.

~~~

I groaned and covered my eyes to block out the obnoxious lamp that was shining light in my face. I sighed and thought about this morning. It happened again. I replayed the whole thing in my head up until the point where I passed out, then I thought of that dream. That dream! 

I sat up quickly as I thought about the dream. I remembered them! I remembered the accident! I flung myself out of bed and opened the door of the room I was in. I needed to write this in my journal! I could already feel the memory starting to fade a little so I needed to hurry. I snuck through the house, desperately clinging onto the memories of my family and praying I wouldn’t run into anyone. I knew if someone tried talking to me I would lose the memory and probably never get it back. I stepped through the front door and quietly shut it behind me before turning and sprinting into the darkness toward my tent. 

I slowed as I approached camp but when I didn’t see anyone in the light of the campfire I rushed over to my tent and slipped inside. I mentally cursed as I felt around in the darkness for my backpack. As soon as my hands hit the familiar form I quickly yanked it open and dug around for my journal. When I had it in hand I snuck back out of my tent and looked around again. Still no one to be seen. I sent a silent thanks to whatever higher power was responsible for this stroke of luck and took a seat next to the fire so I could see. I opened my journal, grabbed the pen I always kept in there and started writing down everything about the dream that I could still remember. I made sure to be very detailed when describing my family, in hopes that I would be able to read this again and maybe draw those memories back. It had been so long since I had seen their faces, heard their voices. I only wish I could remember more, or even hold on to this one tiny sliver that was already fading away. When I was finished I read over it a few times, wishing I could keep just this one memory, but it was no use. I knew it wouldn’t last. They never did. 

A few minutes later I heard footsteps approaching and glanced up. Daryl was walking toward me looking less than happy. Uh-oh. I know I have some explaining to do after what happened. I thought of how scared I was of him this morning and how hard I fought against him because I thought he was gonna hurt me. It seemed so ridiculous now and I felt really embarrassed by how I acted. Daryl walked right up to me without a word and I could feel his hard stare burning holes through me. I slowly opened my journal and ripped out a blank page from the back.

‘Sometimes I wake up and I can’t remember anything' I wrote and held it out to him, avoiding looking at him. He snatched the paper from me and snorted angrily.

“Yea, no shit.” He growled. “When were ya planning on sharing that little piece of knowledge with us, huh?”

I sighed and stared down at my journal, not really having an answer for him. I honestly hadn’t planned on telling them. I guess I had just kinda hoped it wouldn’t happen again. But that was stupid of me. It always happens again. 

“Why” he asked angrily I just shrugged. 

I glanced up at him, he was glaring at me angrily but I could have guessed that from his tone of voice. He was pissed. But I guess I couldn’t blame him, or any of the others for feeling that way. I should have told them. They deserved to know the risk they were taking by letting me stick around. I wondered if they would still want me around after this, or if they would try to get rid of me like my old group did. Maybe I should save them the trouble and just leave now. I was doing just fine on my own until now anyway.

“Quit that” Daryl said suddenly. I looked back up at him curiously. “Whatever dumb shit you’re planning, you best cut that shit out right now” I looked up at him and sighed, frustrated with how he always seemed to know what I was thinking. I guess it was kind of a bitch move to just up and leave after everything that happened today. I held out my hand and looked at the piece of paper Daryl was still holding in a tight grip, but he didn’t hand it over. I huffed in frustration and stood up, reaching for the paper but he yanked it away.

“You coulda died!” he said raising his voice. I blinked in surprise as he pointed a finger in my face. “You started flipping shit, no one knew what the hell was wrong with ya! The doc had to shoot you up with something to calm ya down! He coulda gave you too much! But you didn’t think about none of that, did ya?” He said angrily. 

I stared at him in shock. He was worried about me. I could see it now, hidden behind the wall of anger, he was just as scared as everyone else. A small smile formed on my face at the thought. Daryl Dixon was just as human as anyone else, even though he tried to act otherwise.

“The hell are you smiling about? Don’t you get it?” he asked angrily. I nodded and smiled more. He sighed in frustration and looked over toward the farmhouse. While his guard was down I took my chance to do something that was probably really crazy. I stepped closer and wrapped my arms around Daryl’s waist in a tight hug. He went completely rigid in my arms and I tried not to laugh, but jeez it was just a hug. I pulled back and smiled up at Daryl, who was looking uncomfortable and avoiding looking at me. I laughed lightly and snatched the paper out of his hand, which earned me a very dirty look.

‘Thank you Daryl. For everything.’ I wrote quickly and handed it back to him. 

“Yea whatever” he huffed grumpily and walked away. 

I rolled my eyes at him and decided I should probably go back to the house and find Rick. He was the guy in charge as far as I could tell, so I might as well tell him what was up.

When I got closer to the house I noticed Rick and Shane were on the porch talking. I walked a little closer until I could hear what they were saying and paused.

“I’m telling you, man, the girl has to go” Shane said angrily. 

“I don’t think now is the time for this discussion, Shane” Rick said sounding tired. 

“No Rick, now is the time. You weren’t there, I’m telling you, the girl is bat shit crazy! She came stumbling up to camp looking all lost, then flipped out over nothing!” 

“I’m sure there’s an explanation” Rick said defending me.

“Explanation? What more explaining do you need? Look, we don’t know this girl!”

“Glenn knows her” Rick snapped back.

“He knew her. Before. Y’all found her wandering around out there alone, who’s to say she wasn’t scouting for a group? You really think that scrawny little girl was able to survive out there alone for this long? I don’t think so!”

“Shane” 

“No, man! I’m telling you, she’s probably just biding her time, waiting for us to drop our guard so she can snatch our shit and run!”

“You really think, after what happened this morning, that she’s waiting for us to drop our guard?” Rick asked skeptically.

“I don’t know man, all I know is she’s dangerous. She needs to go.” Shane hissed. “Think of Carl, this girl is unpredictable, that makes her dangerous. You really want someone like that around your family?”

I felt my stomach twist when Rick didn’t answer. He didn’t actually believe Shane did he? But wait, why wouldn’t he? Shane was his best friend, I was just some strange girl that they found wandering around in the woods. Of course he would believe what Shane was telling him. 

I sighed heavily and walked back to camp unsure of what I should do now. It was obvious Shane wanted me gone, but what about everyone else? Should I try explaining myself to them? They probably wouldn’t let it go as easily as Daryl had, or maybe they would? I didn’t even know if they were mad at me yet, I just assumed they were by Daryl’s reaction. 

I guess tomorrow I should try explaining myself and apologizing. It’s the least I could do anyway…


	10. 9

I laid in my tent, staring into the darkness for what felt like hours. I guess sleep wasn’t happening tonight. My mind wouldn’t shut up, replaying what Shane said over and over again. That added to the fact that I was knocked out all day long, I wasn’t tired at all. I sighed heavily and sat up. I pulled my jacket around me tighter and slipped my notepad into my back pocket and went to sit by the fire. It was down to just coals now, and I didn’t really see much point to get it going again. Why waste firewood on just me. I sat in one of the chairs, watching the coals slowly burn out until they were all gone. 

I sat there for a while longer, enjoying the silence and looking at the stars. It was nice, peaceful. It felt like such a long time since things had been quiet. After being alone for so long I had gotten really comfortable with silence. Being around the group didn’t really leave much room for things like that. It seemed there was always something going on with these people.

I guess I ended up falling asleep at some point because I was very rudely awakened when someone kicked my foot roughly. I looked up at Andrea, who didn’t look very happy to see me. 

“Why’d we bother giving you a tent if you were just going to sleep out here?” she huffed and started walking away. I guess she was still mad at me. I got up quickly and tapped her on the shoulder. I figured I’d try talking to her while I had a chance. 

“What?” she sighed as she stopped walking. I pulled out my notepad and flipped it open to a clean page.

‘I just wanted to explain about yesterday’ I wrote and showed Andrea.

She paused and looked around quickly. “Alright” she said hesitantly. 

‘Sometimes when I wake up I can’t remember anything. I know I should have told you guys, but it doesn’t happen very often. I’m really, really sorry.’ Andrea read what I wrote and sighed again, then she looked at me and smiled a little. 

“You had us all really worried you know. I thought Glenn was going to wet his pants.” She said. I nodded, feeling really bad for worrying everybody. 

‘Thank you' I wrote quickly and showed her. 

“Hey, I’m sorry too. I- I know I haven’t been the nicest person to you.” A look of confusion took over my face. I thought she had been pretty nice to me. “You just, you kind of remind me of someone. I guess I thought it would hurt less if I tried not to like you” she said looking at the ground and walking away. I watched her go, wondering who it was that she lost. It was obviously someone she really loved.

I looked around, trying to find someone else when I spotted Glenn sitting on the porch with the brown haired girl again. I walked over to them, feeling really nervous when they looked up at me. I pulled out my notepad and wrote ‘I’m sorry' really big and showed it to him. He stood up and pulled me into a quick hug. 

“Are you ok? What happened with you?” he asked in a worried tone.

I told Glenn what happened and apologized for not telling him about it. He seemed more relieved than anything. When that was done he introduced me to the girl he had been talking to, Maggie. A few minutes later Rick stepped outside and looked over at us. 

“I think we need to talk” he said looking at me. I nodded and followed him into the house where Lori, Dale and Shane were sitting at a dining table. We sat down and I felt my skin crawl under Shane’s furious glare. 

“So, what exactly happened yesterday?” Rick asked in an even tone. I wrote out the same explanation I had several times already and showed it to them.

“So this is…normal?” Lori asked.

‘That’s a strange way to put it, but yes it’s normal for me.’ I wrote.

“How often does this happen?” Dale asked curiously.

‘Not very often usually’ I tried to ignore Shane’s unyielding dirty looks as I showed them what I wrote.

“I couldn’t imagine how scary that would be” Lori said shaking her head “To wake up and have no idea where you are, to not be able to remember anything. It must be terrifying.”

“It is” Rick said looking at Lori and Shane. “I know how that feels. When I woke up in that hospital. You just don’t know, and I didn’t get surrounded by a bunch of people like she did.”

“He has a point” Dale said “Given the circumstances, I think her reaction was fairly appropriate.”

“So that makes it ok?” Shane said angrily. “What if we would have been out there” he said pointing toward the woods. “She could have gotten us all killed!” 

“But we weren’t!” Lori said giving him a hard look.

“Man this is some bullshit! This girl is nothing but trouble, I’m telling you!” Shane growled, giving me a murderous glare. 

“That’s enough” Rick said. Shane was fuming, he stood up quickly, almost knocking his chair over, and stormed out of the house. 

“Look, what’s done is done” Rick sighed. “we know about it now, so if it happens again, we’ll be able to handle it better. Let’s just move past this and start fresh.”

I smiled at Rick and wrote ‘Thank you' on my notepad.

“You’re welcome” he said. 

I stood from the table and walked out of the house, feeling much better now that I’d had a chance to talk to Rick and straighten everything out. I was glad they weren’t mad at me, well, not all of them anyway. 

I had only made it a few steps off of the porch when my good mood was instantly ruined. Shane walked up to me, grabbed my arm painfully and drug me around the side of the house. I tried pulling out of his grip, but the more I struggled, the harder he squeezed.

“Listen up, because I’m only gonna say this once” he said getting in my face. “I know Rick said you could stay, but I don’t give a shit. I’m gonna keep this group safe! If you know what’s good for you, you’ll be gone by morning! Understood?” 

“We got a problem?” Daryl’s gruff voice came from the side of the house and I looked over at him in relief.

“Nah” Shane said releasing my arm and pushing me away from him. He and Daryl stared each other down for a minute before Shane stormed off somewhere. I gave Daryl a thankful look and rubbed my sore arm.

“You alright?” he asked, glancing down at my arm. I nodded and smiled, which seemed to convince him, because he didn’t question it any further. “Don’t listen to that asshole. He ain’t gonna do shit.” I nodded and followed as Daryl started walking back to camp. I decided I’d stick close to Daryl whenever possible, I felt safer with him around.

An hour or so later Rick was organizing another search for Sophia. I wouldn’t have been within 20 feet of Shane if Rick hadn’t personally asked for my help in the search, but here I was. We were looking at a map that Maggie had brought out and I was just trying to ignore Shane’s dirty looks while waiting for Rick to tell me what to do. Rick and Daryl had planned out the whole search and decided who would go where. 

“Alright, now Cooper” When Rick said my name Shane’s eyes were instantly back on me, burning holes through me. I guess Daryl had noticed too because he spoke up before Rick could tell me where to go.

“She can come with me” he said quickly. “We’ll cover more ground through here” he pointed to the map.

“Alright” Rick said rolling up the map. “Good luck everyone. Be careful.” 

I followed Daryl as we went back to camp to grab some things before we went out. I took off my jacket so it wouldn’t be ruined and tossed into my tent, getting my knife while I was in there. When I was done I met Daryl by the fire, he was holding a small backpack that most likely had water and food inside. I took the bag and pulled it over my shoulders while he checked over his crossbow.

“Alright, let’s go” he said and we headed into the woods.


	11. 10

Daryl and I walked for a while in comfortable silence and searched for any sign of Sophia as we went. Daryl held his crossbow at the ready, prepared to take down anything that crossed our paths. He had managed to kill a few squirrels, but other than that, all he was doing was distracting me to no end. I had already caught myself staring at him more times than I would care to admit and we hadn’t even been out here that long. Damn it! Focus Cooper! I really needed to get it together, I’m sure if he hadn’t noticed yet, he would soon if I kept this up. I felt completely ridiculous. I know my mind had wandered a little back at that church when I showed him that dead girl, but there had been so much going on that I didn’t really have time to think about it much. Now there was nothing to distract me. I pulled my eyes away from Daryl and looked anywhere else, cursing my hormones for choosing now of all times to start acting up.

I was intently focusing on the trees to my left when I ran into Daryl’s outstretched arm. Damn, those arms…Okay, focus! I looked over curiously as he pointed to a rabbit sniffing around just ahead of us. He brought his fingers to his lips and I rolled my eyes, like I was going to say something to scare away his rabbit. I stood in place as Daryl crept forward a bit and aimed his crossbow. In just an instant, the arrow flew through the air and hit the rabbit. Daryl walked over to collect his kill and I looked around quickly when I heard a twig snap. I saw movement a little in the distance and grabbed my knife tightly. I had to admit, the thought of running into walkers out here was still a scary thought for me. I had killed a few before, but I had mainly survived until now by sneaking around them or avoiding them all together. I wasn’t exactly experienced in dealing with them head on like Daryl and the rest of the group seemed to be.

Daryl reloaded his crossbow quickly and pointed it in the direction of the growing noise. I moved closer to him, holding my knife in my hands tightly. A walker came shuffling through the trees, then another, and another. Several more came stumbling along behind them and I felt my stomach drop. Every time I had killed a walker it was always one on one, I had never faced a group of them before. Daryl shot the first one in the head and pulled out his knife, not hesitating to stab a few more. I raised my knife in my shaky hands and followed Daryl’s lead, plunging my knife into the skull of the closest walker. I yanked it out forcefully and moved on to the next one. The walker snapped its rotting teeth at me and tried to grab me. I managed to avoid its grasp and sunk my knife into its eye. Something hit me from behind and suddenly I was on the ground, laying on the walker I just killed with something really heavy on top of me. I panicked for a second when I realized it was another walker, but then I noticed the arrow through its head. I cringed as I felt rotting blood dripping down from the walker on top of me and the nasty mush from the walker under me. I struggled under the weight of the dead walker, gagging as my fingers squished into the one under me. If I didn’t get out now the smell was definitely going to make me sick. Relief flooded through me when the weight was lifted. I quickly rolled off of the other walker and took a few deep breaths to avoid throwing up. 

“You alright?” Daryl asked yanking my knife from the walker’s eye. I nodded, inspecting my ruined clothes. I was totally covered in rotten blood and other questionable gooey stuff, thanks to the walker sandwich I was just in. Yay. I pushed it out of my mind, just thankful to be alive, and stood up. I looked around at all the dead walkers and sighed in relief. 

“Here” Daryl said handing me my knife. “We need to keep moving” he said and continued in the direction we had been going. I followed along trying to keep my mind off of my nasty shirt that was now sticking to me uncomfortably. 

“This way” Daryl said suddenly. “Look here” he pointed to the ground. I tried to see whatever he was seeing, but it all just looked like dirt to me. Daryl continued on the trail of whatever had come through here and I followed along quietly. A few minutes later he stopped abruptly and I almost ran into him. I stepped forward and looked at him curiously. 

“The trail’s gone” he sighed in frustration. I looked around for any signs that something or someone had come through when something caught my eye. The sun was shining off of something in the distance. It was pretty far away, and if I had still been walking I would have missed it. 

“What?” Daryl asked curiously when he noticed something had gotten my attention. I pointed toward the shining light and Daryl moved closer to me so he could see it too.

“Let’s go check it out” he said moving around me in the direction of the light. I followed him, forcing my mind away from any thoughts about Daryl and keeping my eyes on the trees. We had already been attacked once, the last thing I want is to get bit because I was too busy ogling a dude instead of watching my surroundings. 

I was surprised when Daryl and I had ended up at an old farmhouse. I guess the sun was glinting off of one of the windows or something because there wasn’t anything else here that could have been shining through the trees like that. Daryl and I stepped up on the porch, weapons ready, and opened the door. I peeked through the rooms on one side of the narrow hallway as Daryl checked the others. I went up the stairs, cringing as they creaked under my weight, while Daryl continued on downstairs. I moved through the upstairs hallway checking the first few bedrooms, which were empty, then moved along to the last one cautiously. 

I paused when I heard growling coming from the other side of the door, took a deep breath, raised my knife and cracked the door open slightly. I braced myself, waiting for the walker to jump at me, but it never happened. I opened the door further and peeked inside, confused when I didn’t see any walkers inside. I stepped into the room and looked around cautiously, not wanting to be caught off guard, but there was nothing there. But I could have sworn I heard something. 

I shrugged it off when I noticed the dresser and closet were still full of abandoned clothes. Maybe I could find something clean and get rid of what I had on. I pulled open a few drawers and dug around to see if there was anything I could change in to. It was pretty hot today and these clothes were smelling worse and worse by the minute. I found a t-shirt in one of the dresser drawers that might fit me so I set it aside. Everything else in there was either way too big, or old fashioned dresses that would have been completely impractical for walking around in the woods. I peeled my disgusting shirt off of me then used an old dress to wipe as much blood off of myself as possible and tossed it to the side. I jumped when a loud hiss come from the closet, just behind where I dropped the dirty dress. I backed up quickly and accidentally knocked a vase off of the dresser as I pulled my knife out defensively. Suddenly a very big raccoon came running out of the closet, hissing loudly as it went, and climbed out of a window that was left half way open. 

I sighed in relief, glad it hadn’t been a walker that was hiding in there. Stupid raccoon, almost gave me a heart attack. I slipped my knife back into it’s case and picked up the clean shirt off of the floor. I shook the dirt off of it and was about to put it on when Daryl came bursting into the room with his crossbow ready to fire. 

“What the hell was all that noise?” he asked roughly as he scanned the room. “You okay?” he paused when his eyes finally landed on me, standing there in just my bra with the new shirt still in my hands.


	12. 11

“Shit” he said, quickly turning around but not leaving the room. “What the hell are ya doing?” he asked uneasily. I laughed quietly at him, it was oddly amusing that the big bad redneck was suddenly so shy in front of a half dressed girl, but honestly I’ve had bathing suits that have showed more than this bra. I quickly pulled the shirt over my head, pleased that it actually fit me perfectly, and pulled my notepad from my pocket. 

‘I needed a clean shirt.’ I wrote, paused for a second, then added ‘There was a raccoon in the closet that scared me' I walked over to Daryl, noticing his slightly blushed face, and tapped him on the shoulder with the notebook. He glanced at me from the corner of his eye hesitantly before grabbing the notepad from me. 

“Raccoon huh?” he said handing the notepad back to me. “Did ya kill it?” he asked lightly. I shook my head and looked at him curiously wondering why he would worry about killing a raccoon when there were much worse things to worry about.

“Too bad, that’s good eatin” he said laughing at the look of horror on my face. What the heck? That is disgusting! I really hope he was just kidding! Who in their right mind would want to eat a raccoon?!

“Come on, I found something” he said walking out of the room. I stuffed my notepad back in my pocket and followed Daryl down stairs. He lead me into the kitchen, picked up an open can from the counter and held it out for me to see. Umm, okay? What did an open tin can have to do with anything?

“It’s fresh” he said setting it back on the counter. Fresh? That means someone came through here recently. I nodded in understanding, I could tell he was thinking it could have been Sophia.

“One more thing” he said walking over to a thin brown door to one side of the room. He pulled it open, revealing what looked like a small makeshift bed inside the pantry. It was so small, there’s no way it could have been anyone but a kid that stayed in there.

Daryl and I decided to check the house again and look for any other signs that it could have been Sophia staying here. We searched through every room, checking the closets and any other hiding places but we couldn’t find anything else. I could tell Daryl was getting frustrated with the situation when he stormed outside and started calling for Sophia loudly. I decided to just leave him alone for now and let him get it out of his system. 

While I was waiting I chose to check the kitchen cabinets and the pantry for any extra food and supplies. There were a few cans of food still left in the cabinets so I tossed them into our backpack on the kitchen counter. I pulled the blankets out of the pantry, folded them up and put them in the bag and went back in to see what else I could find. There wasn’t much on the lower shelves, just a few broken jars and a lot of dust. It looked like there was something up on the top shelf, but it was too high for me to reach it. Using the bottom shelf as a step, I boosted myself up so I could see what was up there, a huge grin plastered to my face when I finally did. There was a brown paper bag shoved in one corner and a machete, a damn beautiful one at that, laying on the shelf. I picked it up and blew the dust off of it so I could see it better. The blade was black, sharp on one side and ridged on the other, with a thick black and silver handle. I think I just found my new best friend.

“You found something?” Daryl asked from the pantry door. I nodded and carefully handed him the machete. As he looked it over, I reached for the bag shoved in the corner, but I couldn’t quite get it. The wood shelf groaned under my weight as I tiptoed and stretched so I could reach the bag. Just as my hand touched the brown paper, the shelf gave way with a loud crack. I gasped as I felt myself suddenly falling downward and slamming into Daryl, taking him down with me. 

“Damn” Daryl groaned from under me. I had landed right on top of him in the middle of the kitchen floor and I can’t say I was very disappointed. He was a pretty good cushion for my fall.

“You’re heavier than ya look, ya know” he huffed, sitting up a little and looking down at me. I looked up at him, our faces only inches apart, and stared into his blue eyes for a second. I don’t know why, but suddenly I felt really self-conscious under his hard stare. I felt my face heat up as I climbed off of him carefully so he could sit up.

“What the hell were you after anyway?” I shrugged, avoiding eye contact, and grabbed the brown bag from the floor next to me. I pulled it open and peeked inside, pausing when I saw the glass bottle. Of course it wouldn’t be anything useful. I pulled the bottle of whiskey out of the bag and stared at it blankly. Alcohol. Of course. 

“Whiskey. Ain’t the cheap shit neither, that’s top shelf” Daryl said looking at the label. 

I huffed and shoved the bottle in his hands roughly. If he was so impressed by that crap, he could have it. I promised myself a long time ago that after everything I’ve been through because of alcohol, I’d never touch the stuff. He gave me a confused look as I zipped the backpack and pulled it over my shoulders. I grabbed the machete and walked outside, vaguely noticing Daryl grabbing his crossbow and following me out. We walked in silence for a while before Daryl decided we should start heading back. It was getting pretty late and the sun would be going down in a few hours. 

“So, what you got against whiskey?” Daryl asked casually. I sighed and looked over at him, he had his crossbow slung over his shoulder and he was carrying something but it was hidden behind his leg so I couldn’t see it. Probably that stupid bottle. I stopped walking and pulled my notepad from my pocket.

‘Alcohol ruined my life' I wrote and handed it over to him. 

“Yea, join the club” he muttered handing it back and walking again. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but I decided to ignore it for now. This wasn’t really the time or place to be getting into all of that. 

I was so happy when we finally broke through the trees and I could see the big white farm house in the distance. After not sleeping most of last night and everything that happened today, I was completely exhausted. All I wanted to do was just eat some dinner and go to sleep. 

As we were walking back into camp I finally noticed what it was Daryl was carrying. There was a pretty white flower sitting inside an empty bottle. That’s strange. Daryl Dixon didn’t really seem like the flower picking type. My eyes stayed glued to him as he walked away from me and went toward the RV without a word. I stood there for a minute, wondering what the flower was about before brushing it off and heading to my tent. I tossed the backpack and machete down in the corner and grabbed my jacket. I wasn’t sure if it was getting cooler outside, or if it was because I was so tired, but I was cold. 

After I pulled my jacket on and zipped it up I went back outside to sit by the fire. I kept to myself as I ate my dinner, sitting alone and trying to ignore the burning glare I was receiving from Shane. A few seconds later I heard someone sit in the chair next to me, I didn’t need to look up to know it was Daryl. He didn’t say anything and I was happy for that, we just sat there quietly, enjoying our food and Shane’s murderous glare. 

~•~•~•~•~  
Hey guys, sorry for the delay, I finally got Netflix (I know I’m so slow) and I’ve been binge watching Prison Break and Breaking Bad. And a few other shows lol but I’m trying to keep up on this too.


	13. 12

Daryl POV:  
I noticed Cooper sitting by the fire eating, not looking too interested in whatever the others were talking about. Shane was still watching her like a hawk, and looking pretty restless too. That son of a bitch better not try anything. I know he killed that Otis guy and from the looks he’s been giving Cooper, he probably wouldn’t hesitate to try and get rid of her too. That asshole wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep over it neither. I got a plate of food and walked over to the chair next to Cooper. I sat down without a word, giving Shane a warning look. He didn’t seem to care about anything going on around him, he just kept his glare focused on Cooper. He was planning something, and whatever it was, I wasn’t gonna let it happen.

I glanced over to Cooper from the corner of my eye. She was staring down at her food, like she was zoned out in her own little world while she ate. My mind flashed back to what happened in that old farmhouse today and I quickly looked down at my own food. Dammit. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t get her out of my damn head. Cooper standing in that room in just her bra with an amused expression, like she thought the whole situation was funny or something. I could still remember how it felt with her laying on top of me when she fell. The way she looked up at me with those big brown eyes, and how her cheeks turned all pink. Hell, even the way her soft blonde hair tickled my arm as she climbed off of me. It’s like everything was burned into my brain and it was driving me crazy. There was more important shit to think about right now, the last thing I need is a woman mucking things up. But it’s not like I could avoid her. If I distanced myself from her, that would give Shane the perfect opportunity to do whatever he wanted to her. That sure as hell wasn’t gonna happen. I just need to forget about all that other shit, before I end up making a damn fool of myself. It’s just a distraction anyways.

Movement across the fire caught my attention, and I watched Shane slip away from the group. I stood up and followed him at a distance, realizing he was going towards Cooper’s tent. I glanced back at her, still sitting there picking at her food and daydreaming. Good. Shane was walking out of her tent as I walked up, and he looking pretty satisfied with himself.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked angrily. 

“None of your damn business” Shane said. He tried to walk away and I grabbed his arm roughly.

“You better back off!” I growled.

“Get the hell off of me” Shane jerked his arm from my hand and glared at me before stomping away.

What the hell was he doing in there? I checked inside Cooper’s tent and everything looked completely untouched. I zipped her tent shut and went back to sit by the fire, wondering what Shane was planning.

 

Cooper POV:  
The next morning we gathered around the truck again, looking over the map and planning our search. Once again, Rick and Daryl had the map open and were planning out new places to search since we had found evidence yesterday of where Sophia could have been. Daryl said he had a good idea which way she had gone from that farm house and seemed pretty confident that we could actually find her today. I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing, even with Shane drilling holes through me with his unhappy stare. That is, until Daryl changed our plans. I felt my stomach drop when he mentioned borrowing a horse, and looked over at him uneasily.

“What?” he asked when he noticed and I pulled out my notepad.

‘why a horse?’ 

“It’ll be faster. What are ya scared or something?” He asked jokingly, then paused when he saw that I wasn’t amused. “You can’t be serious, it’s just a damn horse.” 

‘I don’t trust any animal that could easily trample me to death' I wrote, giving him a serious look.

“Well, you can tag along with me and Shane if you want” Rick said, unaware of the problem that would cause for me. I could practically feel Daryl go tense next to me, and Shane zero in on me when Rick said that.

“I’ll go with her” a younger guy said as he walked up to us. 

“Jimmy” Rick said, “What does Herschel think about this?”

“He said I could. I want to help search too.” Jimmy said looking at us.

“Cooper?” Rick looked at me. I glanced at Daryl, who didn’t look too happy about it, but reluctantly nodded. I turned back to Rick and smiled, giving a thumbs up in agreement. 

Once that was settled, Dale came over to hand out weapons. I didn’t bother, because I had my new machete, but I noticed Jimmy was eyeing a shot gun on the hood of the truck. Dale mentioned something about Daryl and a chupacabra as he was passing out the guns and Jimmy snickered.

“What you braying at jackass?” Daryl growled and I looked over at him curiously.

“You really believe in a blood sucking dog?” Jimmy asked.

“You believe in dead people walking around?” Daryl asked defensively. I nudged Daryl lightly with my elbow and gave him a look. There was no need to go starting fights this morning, we had a job to do. 

Jimmy talked to Rick about having a gun if he was going out in the woods, and I could tell the boy was starting to get on Daryl’s nerves. Jimmy continued to argue but Daryl shut him down and walked away. I rolled my eyes, this kid was going to get himself into trouble if he didn’t learn to listen. I picked up a big hunting knife, handed it to Jimmy and gestured for him to come with me. We didn’t need to waste any time.

Jimmy and I spent several hours walking through the trees, looking around for any signs of anything, but hadn’t had any luck. We both paused when we heard rustling coming from the trees in front of us followed by the sound of hooves. We both jumped back when a brown horse came through the trees.

“Herschel’s horse” Jimmy said walking over and grabbing the horse’s reigns. I stepped back nervously. That had to be the horse Daryl said he was going to borrow, but where was he? Something must have happened, why else would it be running around out here alone?

“We should get it back to the stables” Jimmy said rubbing the horse’s head. My stomach twisted uneasily as I looked back in the direction the horse came from. Something was wrong, I could feel it. I looked at Jimmy and shook my head, pulling out my notepad. 

‘You take the horse back, I need to find Daryl and make sure he is ok' I wrote quickly and showed him. 

“Are you sure?” he asked and I nodded and watched as he got on the horse and started back toward the farm. Once he was gone I turned back the way the horse had come and started walking. Moving carefully, I pushed my way through the thick brush looking for Daryl. 

After walking for a while I was starting to worry that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, but instantly changed my mind when I came to a drop off and saw Daryl laying on the ground at the bottom. I gasped when I noticed the arrow sticking out of his side and the blood soaking through his shirt. I had to help him! I began slowly climbing down, using the small trees and my machete as holds so I wouldn’t go tumbling down like Daryl probably had. I was a little more than half way when I glanced down to check on Daryl and noticed a couple of walkers heading his way. Crap. I had to hurry or I wouldn’t make it to him in time. I quickly slid the rest of the way down and ran over to Daryl, who was mumbling to himself about something. I felt relief wash over me to at least know he was alive.


	14. 13

One of the walkers was chewing on Daryl’s boot by the time I made it to him. I ran at full speed and tackled the walker to the ground, trying to keep a grip on my machete in the process. The walker grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled me forward roughly, trying to take a bite out of me. I pulled back as hard as I could, ignoring the pain from the walker’s strong grip on my hair and grabbed my machete. I swung it at the walkers arm as hard as I could, nearly cutting its arm off and releasing its hold on me. As soon as I was free I raised my machete and stabbed the walker through the head with as much force as possible. 

I heard Daryl cry out in pain and looked over at him in panic. I forgot about the second walker! I gasped as Daryl pulled the arrow from his side, and started to load his crossbow. He wouldn’t make it at this rate, I had to help. I jumped to my feet, yanked my machete from the dead walker, and ran toward Daryl. I raised the machete in the air, ready to strike, when the arrow pierced through the walker’s head and it fell to the ground right in front of Daryl. I stopped in my tracks, lowering my machete and heaving a sigh of relief. He got it in time. I looked down at him, lying on the ground breathing heavily. The blood was soaking through his shirt even faster now from the way he pulled the arrow out. I dropped my machete and kneeled down next to Daryl, trying to stay calm for his sake. I had no idea what to do for him, all I knew was that he couldn’t stay here. We needed to get him back to the farm so the doctor could help him.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Daryl groaned as he tried sitting up. I wrapped my arm around him and helped get him up into a comfortable position. Once he was stable I let him go and reached into my pocket for my notepad, but it wasn’t there. I quickly checked my other pocket then looked all around for it, but there was no sign of it. I had to have lost it when I was sliding down here in such a rush, that was the only explanation since I had it just before I got here.

“You lost it” he stated flatly and shook his head. I looked at him and shrugged in defeat, I’ll just have to find another one soon. Daryl took a deep breath and pulled off his ripped, bloody shirt and I saw the even bigger blood stain on his under shirt. He seemed to know what he was doing as he folded the shirt and tied it tightly to his bloody side to help stop the bleeding.

“Come on, let’s get the hell out of here” Daryl said as he slowly got to his feet. He slung his crossbow over his shoulder and I grabbed my machete so we could get started climbing up.

“You go up first” he said grabbing a stick so he could brace himself. I looked at him with uncertainty. Could he even make it up there in his condition? Well, there wasn’t any other way, so I guess we were going to find out. 

I started climbing up, holding onto the trees like I had before, and pulling myself up carefully. I glanced over my shoulder when I heard Daryl start mumbling to himself again. How hard did he hit his head? I sure hope he was going to be okay. I continued climbing, feeling relief when I saw the end in sight. Feeling a rush of determination, I heaved myself up and over the edge. As soon as I was on flat ground I quickly turned around to see how Daryl was doing and felt my stomach twist anxiously. He was really struggling to get up the last bit, his arms were shaking as he tried pulling himself up more and he was still mumbling to himself angrily. This wouldn’t do, I needed to help him. 

I tossed my machete aside, unbuckled my belt and pulled it off as fast as I could. I slid the end of the belt through the buckle and looped it around my wrist so the buckle was tight against my wrist. I whistled to get Daryl’s attention and dropped the end of the belt down for him to grab onto. Daryl grabbed the end of my belt causing the part around my wrist to tighten up and the buckle to dig into my skin. I braced myself against a tree, ignoring the metal digging into my wrist as I helped pull Daryl upwards. He was just about up when his foot slipped and he started to fall. The belt jerked roughly and I hissed in pain when I felt a pop in my wrist and sharp pain shot through my wrist and into my hand. It didn’t help either that the buckle had dug further into my skin drawing blood. I blinked back tears as I pushed against the tree with my feet and pulled Daryl up so he could climb over the edge. 

“Yea, you better run!” Daryl yelled at nothing once he was over the edge. I ignored his outburst and pulled the belt off of my wrist to see the damage. It was already starting to swell up and there was a dark purple bruise forming in the shape of the belt. I was also bleeding pretty good from where the buckle had dug into my skin. I tried moving my hand but stopped when a sharp pain shot through my wrist. Damn.

“Cooper” Daryl said getting my attention, “You ok?”

I looked up at him and nodded, hiding my wrist from his view and forcing a smile. He was breathing heavily and his side was still bleeding, we needed to get him back to the farm as soon as possible so the doctor could look at him. Daryl started walking ahead, expecting me to follow him, but I took the opportunity while he wasn’t looking to rig a hold for my machete so I didn’t have to carry it in my good hand the whole way. I took my belt and looped it around the bottom of the handle, like I had done with my wrist, and tied it through my belt loop tightly. I was pretty proud of my Macgyver skills, but unfortunately I was quite a ways behind Daryl now. I got to my feet quickly and headed in the direction he went, hoping to catch up with him just in case he might need me.

I had almost made it to the edge of the woods and I could clearly see where Daryl had walked before me. The dirt and grass were all scraped up and it looked like he was dragging something, probably his crossbow. I could hear voices ahead of me so I rushed ahead, seeing Daryl talking to the guys from camp not very far away from me. Finally. I was almost to them when a loud gunshot broke through the air and Daryl fell to the ground in front of me. Rick started loudly screaming ‘No!’ at whoever shot him. My heart felt like it was beating out of my chest as I ran over to Daryl and fell to my knees next to him. I released a shaky breath, feeling the knots in my stomach loosen when I saw that the bullet had only grazed him. Thank God. I moved to the side as Rick came to check on Daryl, and started to lift him up.

“I was kidding!” Daryl said before losing consciousness as Rick and T-dog pulled his arms over their shoulders and started dragging him to the house.

“Guys!” Glenn said picking up a doll from the ground next to Daryl’s crossbow. We all stopped and looked back at him as he held it up for us to see “Isn’t this Sophia’s?” Rick nodded and they continued dragging Daryl toward the house. I followed closely behind them, looking up when I heard Andrea screaming as she and Dale came running toward us.

“Oh my god! Is he dead?” she asked desperately. 

“Unconscious. You just grazed him.” Rick said as they moved past her. I looked over at her in shock, she was the one who shot Daryl? What the hell was she thinking?! Andrea released a shaky breath and looked over at me. “I swear I thought he was a walker!” she explained quickly when she saw the look on my face. I nodded at her, not wanting a fight right now, and rushed past her toward the house.

~•~•~•~•~  
Hey guys, I just wanted to apologize for that last chapter. Most of it was fine, but when I read it there was a part where I was like wtf? I did read over it before I posted it but I guess I wasn’t paying attention. I’ll try to do better about that.


	15. 14

Herschel was standing just ahead of us in front of the house. He was not looking very happy as we rushed over to him.

“We need to get him inside” Herschel said and lead the way into the house. I followed closely as Rick and T-dog drug Daryl through the house and into a bedroom. Daryl was starting to wake up as Rick and T-dog laid him down on the bed. I sighed, sat on the floor in the corner of the room, and looked down at my wrist. The pain was steadily getting worse but at least the cut from the buckle had finally stopped bleeding. 

I looked back up at Daryl, the guys had already gotten his shirt off and laid him down on the bed and Herschel was looking at his side. Rick sat down in a chair next to the bed and asked Daryl what had happened to him. I listened in as Daryl explained where he was searching when something spooked the horse and it threw him over the ledge. Rick said he wanted Daryl to show him exactly where he found the doll and left the room to find the map. I watched as Herschel cleaned Daryl’s wound and prepared a needle for stitches. A moment later Rick came back in holding a map, but unfortunately he wasn’t alone. Shane came walking in behind him, taking a seat next to Rick as he unrolled the map and Herschel began stitching Daryl’s wounds.

“I found it there, washed up on the creek bed” Daryl said pointing to the map. “She must have dropped it crossing there somewhere.” 

“That cuts the grid almost in half” Rick said. 

“Yea, you’re welcome” Daryl said harshly as Herschel put another stitch in his side.

“How’s he looking?” Rick asked Herschel as he rolled up the map.

“I had no idea we’d be going through the antibiotics so quickly.” Herschel said. “Any idea what happened to my horse?”

“Yea, the one who almost killed me? If it’s smart, it left the country” Daryl said sarcastically.

“Jimmy found it. I saw him riding it back to the stables.” Rick said to Herschel calmly.

“We call that one Nelly, as in Nervous Nelly.” Herschel said as he washed his hands. “I could have told you she'd throw you if you'd bothered to ask. It's a wonder you people have survived this long.” Herschel said looking at Rick.

Rick nodded and he and Shane walked out of the room. Herschel cleaned Daryl’s bullet graze and wrapped a bandage around his head to stop the bleeding. When he was finished he walked over and I looked up at him curiously as he stood in front of me.

“You should let me have a look at that wrist.” He said looking down at my swollen bruised wrist.

“What the hell’s wrong with your wrist?” Daryl asked from the bed. I looked over at him, meeting his hard stare for a moment, then looked back up at Herschel. I guess I might as well have it checked, just in case. I stood up and Herschel lead me over to the chair Rick had been sitting in. Once I was seated I held out my wrist for Herschel and tried to ignore Daryl’s hard stare. I had no doubt he would be mad that I didn’t tell him, but he was in no position to be worried about me when he was hurt as bad as he was. Herschel held my wrist lightly as he started touching different places on my hand, probably looking for a reaction to find out exactly what was hurt. 

“Can you move it at all?” He asked and I shook my head ‘no’. “Can you move your fingers?” Herschel asked me gently. I nodded and wiggled my fingers as much as I could, which wasn’t too much, but apparently it was enough to satisfy Herschel. He nodded and continued prodding further down my hand until he came to my wrist. I gasped and jerked away the second his fingers made contact, it felt like a lightning bolt went through followed by an achy throbbing pain. 

“Well, I think it’s safe to say it’s not broken.” He said “But it’s sprained pretty badly. I can’t say for sure how bad the damage is, but it would be best to splint your wrist for a while so it won’t get worse.” I nodded and glanced over at Daryl, who had his hard stare trained on me and was looking pretty pissed. Herschel quickly wrapped my wrist so I couldn’t move it, then he gathered his things and left the room. Once Herschel was gone I looked over at Daryl, waiting for him to start yelling, or blow up on me, or something, but he didn’t. He just laid there with those serious blue eyes of his focused on me.

“So what, you were just gonna sit there and not say anything about it? If the doc didn’t see it, you woulda just ignored it and hoped it wasn’t broken?” He finally asked. I didn’t have my notepad to respond, even though I probably couldn’t write anyway with my messed up wrist, so I just shrugged in response and looked down.

“I don’t know if I should thank you for helping me, or be pissed at you for being so fucking stupid” he huffed in frustration. I looked back up at him and smiled. I was glad that he wasn’t yelling, but I knew he was still mad. 

“What the hell are you smiling about?” he asked grumpily. I shook my head and glanced out the window, my smile fell instantly when I saw Shane outside leaning against a truck reading something. I jumped to my feet and ran over to the window, Shane was reading my journal! 

“What?” Daryl asked curiously. I ignored him, anger burning through my veins, as I stormed out of the room. “Hey, wait a minute!” Daryl called after me but I ignored him and continued heading outside. What the hell was that jerk doing with my journal? Who did he think he was, going through my personal stuff like that? I stormed over to Shane who was just casually reading my journal like it was just a normal thing to do. I was furious when I stopped in front of him and he didn’t even bother looking at me. He just continued reading like I wasn’t even there. I quickly snatched my journal out of his hands and he just looked at me with a smug expression. 

“Glenn sure wasn’t kidding when he said you had memory problems” he chuckled and I glared at him angrily. “You really can’t remember anything about the way things used to be, life before all this. Hell, you can’t even remember your own family” he said darkly. I felt a chill go down my spine at the look he was giving me. 

“I wonder what it would take for that faulty memory of yours to just, forget about this group” he said threateningly. I huffed and turned away from him but he grabbed me roughly by the arm and forced me behind the truck. As soon as we were out of sight he grabbed me by the throat and shoved me down to the ground.

“I’m giving you one last chance! You’re done here!” Shane hissed in my face as he squeezed my throat as hard as he could. I desperately struggled in his grasp, my lungs begging for air as he glared down at me with his cold dark eyes. “Tomorrow morning, you’re gonna be gone! Right?!” I nodded quickly as tears formed in my eyes. Shane let me go and I took a deep breath and coughed harshly when the air finally filled my burning lungs. 

“You do anything stupid, and you’ll be saying hello to Otis for me.” Shane said harshly before he walked away. 

I felt tears streaming down my face as I sat on the ground watching Shane walk away. I had no choice, I had to go. As much as I didn’t want to go, it just wasn’t safe for me here anymore. I couldn’t always rely on Daryl to be there to protect me from Shane, and I know Shane wouldn’t hesitate to try and hurt Daryl too if he needed to. I quickly wiped my face and got to my feet. I knew I wouldn’t be able to just walk out of here in the daylight, someone would stop me and start asking questions. I needed a plan.


	16. 15

I held my journal tightly in my arms as I started walking to my tent. I kept my head down as I walked through camp, avoiding eye contact with anyone so they wouldn’t feel inclined to talk to me. Once I was safely inside my tent I released a shaky breath and sat down on the floor. I grabbed my backpack and dumped everything out so I could repack it with what was important. I put my journal inside my bag and started packing the important things, which sadly wasn’t much. I had a few knives, a couple of granola bars, and my other change of clothes that Carol had very nicely offered to wash for me the other day. I set my clean clothes aside and tossed my jacket on top. I wanted to wash up before I changed clothes, who knows when I’ll have the chance to clean up again once I leave. 

I peeked outside my tent to make sure it was clear, then stepped out and started jogging over to the nearest well. Thankfully someone had left a bucket near it, that would be a big help. I quickly pumped some water into the bucket and carefully carried it back to my tent. Once I was inside with my bucket of water I untied my machete from my belt and yanked my old dirty clothes off. Then I scrubbed myself clean as fast as I could without getting my wrapped hand wet. By the time I was finished I completely freezing and shivering. I used my old shirt to dry my wet hair as much as possible, since it wasn’t very dirty, and quickly pulled on the clean clothes. Once I was fully dressed I pulled my jacket on and wrapped my arms around myself to try and get warm. 

By the time I had finally warmed up enough and quit shivering it was already getting dark outside. I carried the bucket back to the well, dumping the dirty water out into the grass and leaving the bucket where I had found it. I was just about back to my tent when Glenn came rushing over to me. 

“Cooper, there you are! Everyone is having dinner together tonight and we’ve been looking everywhere for you. Come on” Glenn said happily, leading the way to the house. I followed Glenn into the dining room and took a seat between him and Beth. 

The dinner was good and I was glad for one last good meal, but the atmosphere seemed strained. It was pretty uncomfortable, especially watching Glenn and Maggie practically eye-humping each other while passing notes under the table. When the dinner was over I went to the kitchen to clean my dishes then went back to my tent. I pulled my journal back out of my bag and ripped out a blank page. I tried writing as neatly as possible considering my messed up hand, then folded the paper up and put it in my pocket. I put my journal away, pulled my backpack on and grabbed my machete, then I peeked out the door of my tent. It was all clear, everyone seemed to busy doing their own thing, so I stepped outside and zipped the door shut behind me. I moved through the shadows, constantly checking over my shoulder as I approached the farm house. I know I should just go now, but I had one more thing to do before I left.

I went around the side of the house where there was no porch and dropped my backpack and machete on the ground against the siding. It’ll be easier to get away unnoticed if I just pick it up here rather than going all the way back to my tent for it. Now that I didn’t have my stuff I could walk around without drawing attention to myself. I walked around the house, pausing when Maggie burst through the front door and started sprinting over toward the barn. My guess is, that’s where Glenn is probably waiting for her. Once she was gone I stepped up on the porch and knocked on the door lightly. When no one answered I cracked the door open and peeked inside, surprised that no one was in there. I slipped inside, shutting the door quietly behind me and snuck through the house to the bedroom that Daryl was staying in. 

I took a deep breath and tapped lightly on the door. I waited a minute, but there was no answer so I opened the door and stepped inside quietly. Daryl was asleep, that’s why he didn’t answer. I moved across the dimly lit room as carefully as possible and sat down in the same chair as earlier. Daryl was sleeping peacefully, so I sat there, taking in his rugged features and desperately trying to commit them to memory. I needed to remember. After a few minutes I sighed heavily and buried my face in my hands. What was I even doing here? I should have been long gone by now. I needed to go, while I still had time to get as far away as possible before they wake up. I knew for a fact that once they realized I was gone they’d go out looking for me, and I couldn’t let them find me. 

“Cooper. What’re you doing here?” my head snapped up at the sound of Daryl’s voice. I sat up straighter and shrugged, trying to avoid eye contact for fear that he would see right through me. He always seemed to know what I was thinking, but I couldn’t let him figure it out this time. I made sure to keep a neutral expression on my face as his blue eyes focused on me in the dim light. 

“You alright?” he asked cautiously, sitting up further in the bed. I forced a smile and nodded. What was I thinking? This was a terrible idea! I needed to get out of here before he realized what was up. I stood up quickly and started to walk out of the room.

“Wait, what were you doing in here?” he asked again. I stopped next to the bed and looked down at him. There’s no way I could tell him the truth, that would only cause more problems. I sat down on the edge of the bed and stared into his burning blue eyes. 

“What the hell is going on with you? You stormed out of here earlier like hell on heels and now you’re back here acting fucking weird.” Daryl huffed in frustration. This isn’t good. There was only one way I could think to distract him long enough for me to leave, but I felt my face start to blush just thinking about it. I stared at Daryl, his stern blue eyes never faltered away from me for a second. I gathered every bit of confidence I could muster, then quickly leaned forward and pressed my lips against his lightly. Just like I thought, he went completely stiff, just like when I had hugged him. I pulled back and sighed, but much to my surprise, Daryl placed his hand on my cheek and pulled me closer, crushing my lips with his. Well, that was unexpected. Butterflies erupted in my stomach as my lips moved against his desperately. It’s like I was trying to tell him everything, how I felt, what was happening, how guilty I felt about what I was about to do, everything in just this one kiss. When Daryl pulled back he brushed his thumb across my cheek, wiping away a tear. I hadn’t even realized that I had started crying. 

“What is it?” His husky voice sent a shiver through me. I pulled the note from my pocket and placed in the palm of his hand and closed his fingers around it. I held his hand in mine and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. 

“Cooper” Daryl called as I quickly stood up and rushed out of the room. I hurried out of the house, snatched my backpack and machete, and ran as fast as I could into the night.

~•~•~•~  
I’ll be doing some Daryl POV next chapter.


	17. 16

Sorry this took so long, I swear my husband is more needy than my kids lol.  
~•~•~•~•~  
Daryl POV:  
I jumped awake at the sound of someone knocking on the bedroom door. I didn’t know what time it was, but the sun was already shining through the window. It felt weird waking up after sunrise, I couldn’t remember the last time I had slept in like this. Another impatient knock on the door pulled me from my thoughts.

“What?” I groaned as sat up and rubbed my aching head. Man, whatever meds the doc gave me yesterday got me all fucked up, especially with that dream I had last night. Speak of the devil, Herschel came walking in a second later with his box of medical crap.

“I just need to change your bandages, then you’re free to go” he said. Great. I pulled my shirt off then sat back and let the doc do his work. I was happy that he took the stupid itchy bandage off my head and replaced it with a regular bandaid. When he was done changing the bandages he packed up his box and left the room. I was glad he didn’t try to give me any more meds, I didn’t need to be having any more weird dreams. Although it was one hell of a dream, the whole thing just wasn’t sitting right with me. I pushed the memory out of my head, there was no point thinking about it anyway. I felt fucking stupid for even dreaming that shit, especially since it sure as hell would never happen. 

I swung my legs over the side of the bed and slowly reached for my shoes but I paused when something fell down between my feet. I stared at the folded piece of paper laying on the floor, it was just like the one Cooper gave me in my dream. But it couldn’t be. It was just a dream…right? I bent down slowly, wincing as the stitches pulled in my side, and picked up the paper. What the hell is going on? It was supposed to be a fucking dream! I quickly unfolded the paper and looked down at the familiar handwriting. It was Cooper’s writing, that’s for sure. Shit! It wasn’t a dream! That shit was fucking real! I kissed her! I felt my stomach twist uncomfortably as I stared at the paper. But what the fuck is with this cryptic note? ‘Safe Haven After Necessary Escape' what’s that supposed to mean? Escape? What the hell would she need to escape from? I read the note a few more times before I finally realized what it really meant. Safe Haven After Necessary Escape. SHANE.

“Son of a bitch!” I growled angrily as I yanked my shoes on. She was planning to leave because of that mother fucker! What the hell was she thinking? I told her she’d be fine! Did she not believe me or something? After everything I’ve done for her! And who the fuck did she think she was, coming in here and pulling that shit last night if she was just planning on leaving?! If she thought she could come here and try to make a fool of me, she had another fucking thing coming! I stuffed the note in my pocket as I stormed out of the house angrily. I didn’t make it too far though, as soon as I stepped on the porch Glenn was running over to me looking confused and worried. 

“Have you seen Cooper?” he asked frantically. 

“No, why?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

“We can’t find her anywhere, and her tent is cleared out” he said. “I thought she might have been staying in the house.” 

“She ain’t” I huffed angrily.

“Well, where do you think could she have gone then?” he continued.

“Man, don’t you get it? She left! She packed her shit and said to hell with us! She’s gone!” I yelled, as anger coursed through me like fire. “Good riddance” I huffed and stomped off to my tent leaving Glenn looking dumbfounded on the porch.

Cooper POV:  
I sighed heavily as I held my machete in my shaky hand. After running all night I finally found an old house that hadn’t been burned down or completely over run. I had waited until the sun was up before I went inside and killed the few walkers that were lurking around. So, there I was barely keeping a shaky grip on my machete as I stared down at the decomposed bodies laying on the floor. I tossed my bag down in the corner of the room and set my machete next to it. All I wanted to do was sleep, but I needed to get these nasties out of here first. 

After a significant amount of time struggling and probably making my injured wrist even worse, I had finally gotten all of the dead bodies out of the house. I huffed in frustration as I wiped my hands off on a towel I had found in the bathroom, it was already after noon and I still needed to secure this place so it would be safe for me to sleep here. I went through the whole house, making sure every window was closed and covered them with blankets so I wouldn’t have to worry about any walkers seeing me through them. Once the windows were done, I locked the back door and slid a very heavy wooden shelf against it so nothing could get through, then did the same with the front door, blocking it off with the couch from the living room. 

I felt much safer now that the house was locked up, so I grabbed my backpack and machete and went upstairs to the closest bedroom. I closed the door and tossed my things down on the floor next to the bed, then I slid the dresser in front of the bedroom door. I had learned early on that when you’re out on your own, there’s no such thing as being overly cautious. All it takes is one big group of walkers to come across your hiding spot and you’re done for. 

I unzipped my backpack and pulled out a granola bar. As much as I wanted to sleep, I really needed to eat something first. I slowly munched on the granola bar, savoring it as much as possible. My supplies were desperately limited and I needed to ration the tiny bit I did have until I could gather more. The granola bar was gone too soon and was more of a tease for my stomach than anything, but I couldn’t eat any more right now. I flopped down on the bed and sighed heavily, trying to ignore my growling stomach. Even though it had only been a short time, it seemed that my stomach had gotten spoiled to the decent meals thanks to the group. 

My vision went blurry as tears formed in my eyes and my stomach flipped uneasily as I thought about them. I had been alone for such a long time, and at the time I was okay with it, but after being with a group that actually wanted me around I realized just how lonely I really was. I sniffled and buried my face in the bed, trying to push everything away so I could go to sleep, but it was no use. All I could think about was how guilty I felt for leaving without telling to anyone except Daryl. Daryl, I felt completely horrible for leaving him like I did, especially after what happened last night. It wasn’t supposed to go like that. I thought I’d kiss him and he would just clam up like he did when I had hugged him, I never thought he would actually kiss me back! And I just left him there! He didn’t deserve that! What kind of horrible person am I? 

I laid in that bed, crying quietly to myself until well after the sun had gone down, and I eventually just cried myself to sleep.  
~•~•~•~•~  
Hope you guys are enjoying the story. I would really love to hear from you silent readers! I love hearing what you guys have to say about the story and I am always open to suggestions too.


	18. 17

I sighed heavily and held my aching stomach. It was past the point of just growling now, it felt like my stomach was twisting itself in a knot as a way to protest not having any food. I had been out here for about 3 days now, but I still hadn’t left the old farmhouse I had found. I spent all of the first day sleeping and the next day and a half crying and throwing myself a pity party, but now I was out of food and I needed to move on. I pulled myself together, packed up my bag and grabbed my machete. I’ve had my time to be sad, now it’s time to go back into survival mode. I pulled my backpack on and moved the dresser away from the door of the room I had been staying in. Holding my machete firmly, I made my way downstairs and shoved the couch away from the front door. I peeked through the door to make sure it was all clear before I stepped out of the house and started on my way. 

I decided to head back to the main road and follow it, knowing that sooner or later I would come across something. As it turned out, I was right. Just a short walk away from the house I was in was a small town. I smiled to myself as I walked down the street and looked at the names on the buildings, there was a pharmacy and a few other small stores that all looked like they were picked pretty clean. There was a small grocery store up the road a little way that looked promising, but I froze when I heard a vehicle approaching. I didn’t know who it was and I didn’t want to be a sitting duck if they weren’t nice people, so I quickly ran inside the closest building. It was an old bar that looked like it had been around forever. I peeked through a small window as a truck pulled up to the bar and parked. Why did that truck look so familiar? The door of the truck swung open and I quickly backed up to the middle of the room with my machete raised, ready to defend myself if I needed to. I heard heavy footsteps approaching and the door swung open slowly, revealing a very distraught looking Herschel. I lowered my machete and sighed in relief, but what in the world was he doing out here all alone?

“Cooper” Herschel said as he closed the door behind him. “So this is where you’ve been. I didn’t take you for the drinking type.” he said as he walked over to the bar and grabbed a bottle of liquor. That’s funny, because I didn’t peg Herschel as the drinking type either, but there he was pouring himself a glass. Something was wrong though, I know I didn’t know him personally, but Herschel always struck me as a strong man. But today, he looked so…broken. Herschel took a seat on a barstool and sipped his drink as he stared off into space. I set my machete down on a table and pulled off my backpack so I could grab my journal. I pulled a blank page out and grabbed my pen before I put my journal back in my bag. I took a seat next to Herschel and started writing slowly, trying to make it legible despite my stiffly wrapped wrist.

‘Is everything ok?’ I wrote and slid the paper over to Herschel. He didn’t even look at it. He just sat there sipping his drink and staring at the wall. I sighed and folded my arms on the bar, I wasn’t sure why, but I felt like I needed to stay with him right now, like if I didn’t then something bad would happen. I wasn’t sure how long we sat there, but after a while I heard the sound of another vehicle pulling up to the bar. Herschel didn’t seem to be bothered by it, if he even noticed it at all, but I turned on my stool and eyed the door warily. I heard footsteps outside and a moment later Rick and Glenn came through the door. 

“Herschel” Rick said as he stepped inside. “Cooper?” He added with a surprised look on his face. I smiled and waved at him and Glenn awkwardly. This should be a sufficiently uncomfortable conversation. 

I stayed in my spot, listening to Rick and Glenn tried to convince Herschel to come back to the farm. Herschel didn’t seem to want to hear anything they had to say as he continued sipping the amber liquid. After a few minutes of pointless debate Glenn sighed and sat down next to me, glancing at me from the corner of his eye.

“Why did you leave?” he asked bluntly. I looked over at him and hesitantly grabbed my pen and paper.

‘It’s sort of complicated' I wrote.

“Alright, I guess.” He said, but I could see the curiosity burning in his eyes. “Look, I know it’s none of my business, but does it have anything to do with Daryl?”

‘No, why?’ I wrote looking at him curiously. What would make him think this had anything to do with Daryl?

“Oh, I just thought—He was just really pissed the day you left. Like really, really pissed. Then, I don’t know why, but the next day it’s like he did a total 180. He was trying to convince Rick that we needed to find you and bring you back, but…” he trailed off.

‘But what?’ I wrote looking at him anxiously. It hurt to hear how mad Daryl was, but I really couldn’t blame him after what I did to him. Although it did make me feel a little bit better to know that he wanted to come after me.

“Well, we found out that the barn was full of walkers and there was a lot of trouble with that. Then this morning Shane came unglued and basically forced us to put them all down. Herschel’s family was in there. He thought they were just sick.” He said quietly. So, that explained why Herschel was here. He was trying to drown the pain of losing his loved ones. Loved ones that he should have let go of a long time ago. I don’t know why, but I felt a little disappointed that he was trying to find comfort at the bottom of a bottle of scotch rather than with his family. I really didn’t think he was that kind of man, but I guess everyone has their vices. 

“That’s not even the worst part.” Glenn added solemnly. “Sophia was in the barn too. She was in there the whole time.” 

I looked at him sadly then glanced over at Rick who was still trying to talk some sense into Herschel. All this time, everyone was out there searching for that poor little girl and she was already gone. I had overheard Carol blaming Rick on several occasions, asking him how he could leave a child alone in the woods. I’m sure he had his reasons, but I also knew the guilt was probably eating him alive. That’s just the kind of person he was, it didn’t matter if it was an accident or not, he would continue blaming himself for it even though it was out of his control. 

Glenn and I sat there quietly listening to Rick as he continued to talk to Herschel. The sun had gone down now and the moonlight was streaming through the windows giving the bar an eerie feeling. I didn’t even know why I was still here, I hadn’t had any intentions of rejoining the group, but now that they had found me it just didn’t seem right to leave again. I hadn’t even considered the possibility of them finding me, whether on purpose or by accident, but now that they had, I felt a sense of relief. I suddenly felt extremely stupid for all the crying I had done the last few days. I was so upset about what I had done, thinking that they would all be mad me for leaving without saying anything, and maybe they were, but if they were they weren’t letting on any. Glenn even said that Daryl wanted to come find me, yea he was really mad the first day, and no doubt was still fuming over it, but he wanted to come find me. That had to mean something, right? I couldn’t deny that the only thing I wanted more than food right now, was to go back to the farm. To go back home.

We all looked at the door quickly when we heard it swing open, two strange men were standing there staring at us curiously.

“Son of a bitch. They’re alive!” he chuckled.


	19. 18

“Son of a bitch. They’re alive!” he chuckled.

I noticed Rick and Herschel stiffen uncomfortably as the two men walked further into the bar. The first guy introduced himself as Dave and motioned to his very overweight friend and called him Tony. I kept a wary eye on Tony as he leaned against the bar next to me. I didn’t like the way he was looking at me, he was giving me the creeps and I regretted not having my machete in my hand right now. I half listened as Dave talked to Rick and Glenn about Fort Benning being over run. Well damn, I could have told them that. I hadn’t been there or anything, but after what they went through at the CDC, did they really expect anything different waiting for them at Fort Benning? The world we knew is gone, for good. There is no more government or military to take care of us. We’re all on our own now. 

I felt my stomach twist nervously as Dave started asking questions about where we were staying. He was asking too many questions for my liking and I was happy when Rick and Herschel shut him down. This Dave guy sure was persistent though, he just refused to drop the matter and continued trying to guess where we were. 

“So what, you guys set up on the outskirts or something? That new development? Trailer park or something? A farm?” He glanced up at Rick who had turned to look at Herschel. “Old McDonald had a farm…You got a farm?” He pressed. I cringed as Tony chuckled, he was steadily scooting closer and closer to me. They had mentioned earlier that they were living out of their cars, well Tony definitely smelled like he had been living out of a car.

“Is it safe?” Dave asked curiously. “You got food, water?”

“I see y’all got cooz.” He said grabbing a piece of my hair in his fat greasy fingers. “Ain't had a piece of ass in weeks.” He chuckled. I went completely rigid and looked over at Rick desperately, trying to keep a grip on my emotions.

“Come on Tony!” Dave huffed. Tony shrugged and backed away from me a little bit, much to my relief. “Listen, pardon my friend. City kids, they got no tact.” 

“No disrespect, sweetheart” Tony said with a smirk.

“So listen, Glenn-” Dave started again.

“We've said enough” Rick cut him off.

Dave didn’t seem to like the fact that we weren’t willing to give up our farm to them and quickly switched from persistently asking about it, to threats. My eyes followed Dave as he sauntered around the bar and pulled out a gun. This just went from uncomfortable to just plain bad. I jumped to my feet and moved away from the bar as he set the gun down, but Tony grabbed my arm tightly and held me in place. Rick glanced back and forth between Dave and Tony as Dave continued to run his mouth even though no one was listening anymore. I noticed Rick’s hand moving to his gun as he gave me a warning look. I nodded slightly and quickly ducked as Rick whipped out his gun and quickly shot the two men down.

“Are you ok?” Rick asked as I stood up. I nodded and looked down at the two dead men as Glenn grabbed their weapons. This day just keeps getting better and better. Not a moment later we heard more vehicles pulling up outside the bar followed by voices calling out for the men Rick had just shot. Of course, because things were already going so well. 

I quickly grabbed my backpack and machete, then ducked down near the front of the bar with the guys. I held my machete tightly as Rick spoke to the men outside of the bar, trying to get them to go away and leave us alone. That back fired. We all ducked down as gunshots blew out the windows above our heads. What the hell were we supposed to do now? Rick seemed to have a plan as he motioned for us to move to the back of the bar. We all jumped up, as Rick fired back at the men, and ran to the back of the bar.

“Glenn, Cooper, y’all go out the back and try to get to the car. Bring it around back and we’ll get the hell out of here” Rick said holding a gun out to me. I set my machete aside and grabbed the gun, nodding at him and looking over at Glenn. 

“Herschel, you cover them and I’ll cover you from here” he said handing Herschel the other gun.

We were almost to the back door when a gunshot broke through the silence and the window on the door shattered. We hesitated a moment before Glenn snuck forward quietly and pushed the door open, pausing to make sure he wouldn’t be shot. Herschel stood behind us with his gun, ready to cover us. Glenn and I slipped out the door, instantly ducking as gunshots rang out. Bullets smashed into the brick wall just over our heads as we ran, and I stumbled as a sharp searing pain shot through my right shoulder.

“Cooper!” Glenn gasped as he pulled me down behind a dumpster. “Oh shit!” he said as he pulled my backpack off and helped me scoot against the wall. My shoulder throbbed in horrible pain as blood soaked my shirt. I clenched my jaw shut as my vision started going blurry. I guess not eating anything more than a few granola bars in the last three days was a worse idea than I thought. I was already running on nothing, but now I was bleeding badly and I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness. 

“Are you hit?” my head snapped up when I heard Rick calling quietly as he ran behind the dumpster with us. 

“Not me, Cooper is!” Glenn answered shakily. They both looked down at me, their faces getting blurry. I noticed their mouths were moving but I didn’t hear what they were saying. I smiled up at Glenn, trying to tell him that I would be okay before everything went black.

Daryl POV:  
I glared at Shane as he loaded up a car with crap so they could go out looking for Rick and Glenn. Those two dumb asses probably went and got themselves killed going after the doc. They should have just let the old man be, but they insisted on going after him, which just ground on my fucking nerves. All these people in this fucking group were pissing me off lately, only caring about someone if it was useful to them. 

Shane walked past me to go talk to Andrea and I had to hold myself back from beating his ass right there. Cooper was gone because of that asshole! He did something to her, I just know it, and when I wanted to go find her none of these sons of bitches wanted to do so much as lift a finger to help her. But the minute someone else runs off to do something fucking stupid, they’re falling all over themselves to save the day! Just like that stupid bitch Lori, taking off on her own last night and damn near getting herself killed. The minute they noticed she was gone, they were scrambling to find her, but they wanted to give me hell for trying to find Cooper. It’s all a bunch of bullshit!

I looked up quickly when I heard a vehicle pulling up and grabbed the strap of my crossbow. I wasn’t the only one who noticed either, all of us walked up to the truck that pulled to a stop in front of the house. Rick and Herschel got out of the truck and Glenn got out of the back. Everyone was all happy and hugging and shit, but I noticed Glenn had a good bit of blood on his shirt. I wonder what happened, they all look well enough to me.

“What’s all that blood?” I asked, not really liking the look that crossed all of their faces.

“We need to get her inside” Herschel said as Glenn opened the truck door. 

Her? I walked up to the truck quickly and looked inside, feeling my stomach drop. It was Cooper. She was unconscious in the back seat next to some other guy who was tied up and blindfolded. I didn’t even care who the other guy was, all I could focus on was the blood all over Cooper’s shirt and how pale she looked. What the hell happened to her?

“We found her in town, at the bar with Herschel. I have no idea where she was before that though” Glenn said as he helped me pull her out of the truck without hurting her.

“Who the hell is that?” T-dog asked when he saw the blindfolded guy.

“That’s Randall” Glenn said. I huffed as I scooped Cooper up in my arms and followed Herschel into the house. These assholes better have a good explanation for all of this shit. Hell, Cooper better have a damn good explanation too when she wakes up. If she wakes up. She wasn’t looking so good right now. I laid Cooper down and stepped back as the doc checked her heart and Patricia grabbed the stuff he would need.

“You mind stepping out while I-”

“Hell no!” I cut him off. “I ain’t going nowhere!” I growled angrily and crossed my arms. 

“Suit yourself” he mumbled as he pulled her shirt off. Not like I hadn’t seen it before, not that it was any of their business.

“Looks like it went clean through” Patricia said as Herschel cleaned the wound. I watched closely as he stitched up the front of her shoulder, then rolled her over and did the back. When he was finished he wrapped her shoulder up and covered her with a blanket.

“That’s all I can do for now” he said to me then turned to Patricia “We need to go tend to Randall now.” I snorted as they left the room and looked down at Cooper. She better fucking wake up.

~•~•~•~•~  
I would have had this up yesterday, but it was mother’s day and for some reason my kids decided to become possessed by Satan. It was pretty bad lol.


	20. 19

Pain. That’s all I could feel, horrible searing pain, radiating throughout my entire body. What was going on, why did I hurt so much? I cracked my eyes open and immediately squeezed them shut when they were met with a blinding light. Ugh, why is it so bright? What the heck happened to me? 

I slowly worked my eyes open, confusion setting in as I took in my surroundings. Stark white walls, minimalistic furniture, and a beeping sound coming from a monitor nearby, it wasn't hard to figure out where I was. The Hospital. But why was I in the hospital? What happened to me?

I attempted to sit up but faltered as a shooting pain went through my head. Ouch. The beeping sound sped up with my heart rate as I tried to breathe through the pain. What the hell happened to me, why was I here? Fear rose within me as I desperately tried to remember how I had managed to get myself in the hospital. Suddenly a nurse came bustling through the door with a frantic expression, pressing buttons on the monitor and telling me to not move. I watched in a daze as she prepared a syringe and carefully injected something into my IV. 

"What're you doing?" I asked, or tried to anyway. 'What's going on? Why can't I talk?' I thought as numbness overtook me. I desperately tried to get the woman's attention as I felt myself drifting back to sleep.  
~~~

Slowly, I felt myself coming back to consciousness. My shoulder ached and my whole body felt a little stiff, but besides that I was fine. How long was I asleep for? When I opened my eyes I was surprised, instead of the stark white I was expecting to see, there was floral wallpaper and warm sunlight coming from a nearby window. I wasn't in the hospital, not anymore anyway. Maybe it was just a dream? I glanced around the room and went completely stiff when my eyes landed on a certain grumpy looking redneck sitting in a chair next to my bed. Shit. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as the memories slowly came back to me. Me leaving, the bar with Herschel, Rick, and Glenn, the shootout, me getting shot. Fun times. 

I glanced back at Daryl, sitting back in the chair completely lost in the book he was reading. He looked tired, like he hadn't slept well in days, and his usually messy hair was even more so. My gaze moved to his bloodied knuckles, had he gotten into a fight recently? That thought lasted for only a moment when I glanced at the book Daryl was so consumed with, the familiar, worn brown leather held in his hands. My journal. My fucking journal! 

Fire burned through my veins as I slowly sat myself up, ignoring the way the world started spinning around me. What the fuck was with these people invading my privacy? Did no one in this group have any idea about boundaries? This is the second time already I've caught someone reading my journal. It's not that I had any big secrets locked away in there, that's not why I kept it, but it was my memories, my life, or what I had left of my life anyway, that stuff was personal and it sure as hell wasn't anyone else's fucking business! 

Once I was finally sitting upright I quickly reached out and snatched my journal from Daryl's hands, earning myself an interesting look that was a mix of anger and shock. I glared daggers at him as I slammed the book shut and held it tightly against my chest. I didn't care what kind of friendship, or whatever it was, that we had I wasn't going to act like I wasn't pissed off. 

I sat there for a moment, waiting for him to say something but he just sat there, his cool blue gaze never moving away from my burning glare. I angrily ripped a blank page from the back of my journal, taking the pen that stayed nestled inside and furiously scribbled 'What's your problem? Who do you think you are?', on the paper, not caring one bit how messy it was because of my wrist. I tossed the paper at him, watching his face slowly get angrier as he snatched it and read the note. 

"What's my problem?" He growled angrily, sending icy blue daggers my way. "What the hell is your problem, huh?" He said, steadily raising his voice. I kept my gaze focused on one particularly worn corner of my journal as Daryl vented his frustrations at me. 

"Pulling that shit you did that night, then just disappearing like that! Who the hell do you think you are?!" I didn't look at him because I knew everything he was saying was completely true, but also because I was still furious that he would invade my privacy just like Shane had.

"Ain't got nothin to say for yourself?" He asked harshly, seeming frustrated with my ignoring him. I scowled at him, clutching my journal tightly so I wouldn't be tempted to punch him in his face. Sure he had every right to be mad at me, but I had a right to be mad at him too, and right now all I wanted was for him to just leave me alone, so I snatched the paper back from him. I angrily scratched 'GET OUT!' in big sloppy letters and smacked him right in the face with the paper. Sure it was a little immature, but the look on Daryl Dixon's face at that moment was completely worth it.

"You want me to leave you alone? Fine!" He yelled, slamming the paper down on the table next to him and storming out of the room. I jumped as he slammed the door loudly behind him and listened to his angry footsteps as he stomped down the hall. I sighed heavily, wincing slightly as pain went through my shoulder. 

A while later Herschel came to check on me, and after a fresh change of bandages he allowed me to go wash up and get something to eat. Afterwards I decided to head over to the camp to see what was going on and what I had missed. 

A shiver went through me as I stepped outside holding my journal to my chest tightly, the weather was definitely starting to cool off already. I started toward my tent with hopes that my things would be in there but faltered when I noticed Shane walking toward me. I went completely rigid, watching his every move, as he stalked up to me and then continued on right past me without so much as a second glance. Dumbfounded, I spun around and watched as he stomped up the steps of the porch and into the Greene's house. What the heck? What all did I miss while I was gone? Not that I'm complaining, but I was only gone for a few days and I couldn't have been unconscious for more than a day or two. Not that I was complaining about Shane's sudden lack of interest in me, but what could have possibly happened to grab his attention so much that he wouldn't even acknowledge my being back at camp? With a shrug, I continued on back to my tent with a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. If Shane didn't care about me anymore, then I wouldn't have to be constantly worrying and watching over my shoulder now that I was back.

I couldn't begin to describe the feeling when I opened my tent and found my backpack, now stained red with what I would assumed is my blood. I quickly yanked it open and snatched the familiar green jacket from inside, replacing it with my journal. I wasted no time pulling the jacket on and basking in the warmth it provided me. This winter was going to be hell for me if I couldn't manage to find warmer clothes and a thicker coat. 

"Cooper! Glad to see you up on your feet!" Glen's voice bursting with excitement from behind me. I turned around with a smile but gasped in pain as he pulled me into a tight hug.

"Sorry, forgot about your shoulder for a second" he chuckled nervously as he released me. I offered a reassuring smile and shrugged it off, it really wasn't that big of a deal. 

"Oh, I almost forgot" he said reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small spiral bound notepad with a small pen tucked into the top. "Daryl mentioned that you lost your other one, so I found a new one for you."

A huge smile spread across my face as I threw my arms around Glenn and accepted the notebook from him.

~•~•~•~•~  
Hey guys! I'm so so so so sorry for my vanishing act a while ago, I was dealing with a LOT of personal issues and trying to take some time away from the internet to spend time with my husband and children. There's also about a hundred other reasons, but I won't bore y'all with excuses. 

I'm back now, but I probably won't be able to upload as quickly as I was before, so please don't be upset if I don't have new updates every other day. Besides, I hate rushing like that because I feel like my writing is extra crappy when I do that.

Again I'm SOSOSOSOSOSO SORRY! And Thank you guys so much for all the nice reviews (and even the few not so nice ones) while I was gone.


	21. 20

'A week!?' Glenn chuckled at the shocked look on my face as he read the note. After he gave me my new notepad, we sat down near the fire so he could catch me up on everything that happened while I was out. Apparently I had been unconscious for a week because I had lost so much blood. 

He had already explained the barn incident back at the bar, but apparently after I got shot they saved some kid named Randall and that's when the shit really hit the fan. He told me how Shane was convinced that Randall was dangerous to the group and they needed to kill him. I couldn't help but feel bad for the kid, especially because I was unfortunate enough to be on Shane's radar before and I know how it can feel. Then he told me that Rick and Shane were supposed to drop him off somewhere far away yesterday, but the plan backfired when he told them he knew Maggie, and about Daryl's little interrogation session this morning. I couldn't believe how crazy things had gotten in just one week. Once Glenn had finished explaining the new situation he left to go talk to Maggie. 

I sighed as I stared into the fire thinking about Randall. Now that I knew what Daryl had found out about his group, I had to agree that something needed to be done, but I still couldn't help but feel bad for the kid. It seemed like he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and now he was probably going to die because of it. 

I glanced up when something running past a nearby tent caught my eye. My eyebrows pulled together in confusion as I watched Carl sneaking out of camp, looking like he was up to something. I looked around for either Rick or Lori, but neither of them were anywhere to be found. Turning back toward Carl I got to my feet and quietly followed him. What on earth was this boy up to and where the heck were his parents?

I followed Carl at a distance as he walked around an old fallen tree toward what looked like an old stone chimney way out in the middle of a field. What really confused me was when I saw the single tent set up with a motorcycle parked across from it. Daryl's camp? But why would he move all the way out here away from the group? Was he really that upset about what I did to him that he needed to move all the way out here to get away from me? Or maybe it didn't have anything to do with me at all. Glenn did say they found the little girl they were looking for inside the barn with the walkers. Daryl seemed to be the one who cared the most about finding that girl. Maybe he was just taking it hard and this was his way of dealing with it? More importantly at the moment, why was Carl sneaking into Daryl's camp when Daryl clearly wasn't here? 

I ducked behind a tree as Carl walked over to Daryl's motorcycle and started messing with it. He started to walk around the motorcycle so I hid myself more behind the tree so he wouldn't see me. By the time I peeked back around Carl was walking away from Daryl's camp, but rather than going back to the house, he was going into the woods. What could this kid be up to? Keeping a safe distance behind him, I followed him into the woods. I took advantage of the cover the trees gave me when Carl started to slow down and look all around him suspiciously before continuing on further. He finally stopped when he came to a small stream where a walker was stuck up to his shins in the thick sticky mud. I started to panic as Carl moved toward the walker and started pelting the dead body with rocks. Oh hell no! I jumped around the tree I was hiding behind to stop this and take him back to the farm, but that crazy child was crossing the stream to get closer to the walker. I whistled loudly to get his attention as I got closer but my heart nearly stopped when Carl pulled Daryl's gun out of his pants and aimed it at the walker. This was all just so messed up. I quickly jumped over the stream, just in time too because the walker had managed to break one foot free and had gotten ahold of Carl's leg. I ran over to them kicking the walker hard in the head and yanking Carl up by his arm. I made sure to retrieve Daryl's stolen gun before rushing the both of us away from the flesh eating monster still stuck in the mud. 

"I'm sorry! Please don't tell my parents! I'm sorry!" He repeated the whole time I was practically dragging him out of the woods. When we finally got back to the field I released his arm and turned to him with a glare.

'What the hell were you thinking!? Are you trying to get yourself killed!?' I signed quickly, my hands moving wildly with frustration.

"I don't know sign language" Carl mumbled grumpily.

I huffed and yanked out my notepad quickly writing what I had said and nearly throwing it at him. 

"I was gonna shoot it but it got free!" He argued.

I sighed heavily, shaking my head at him as I took my notepad back and stuffed it back in my pocket.

"Are you gonna tell my parents?" He asked looking up at me with big blue puppy dog eyes. I shrugged, giving him a stern look and leading him back toward the house through the large field. 

As we approached the house Rick was calling everyone to gather up for the sunset meeting to decide what to do with Randall. Lori called Carl over, not looking the least bit concerned about where her son had run off to all afternoon, and told him he was to stay with Jimmy during the meeting. Carl sent one last pleading glance at me as he followed his mother into the house and I just shrugged at him. I hadn't decided what I was going to tell his parents yet, but I felt like I really needed to tell them something. Especially since Daryl was sure to start asking questions when I gave him back his gun, which was currently tucked away in the waist of my pants and safely hidden by my oversized jacket.

"So how do we do this? Just take a vote?" I heard Glenn ask uncertainly as I entered the house, walking past Daryl to stand near Glenn who was sitting on a piano bench. "Does it have to be unanimous?"

"How about majority rules?" Lori said looking at Rick. 

"Well, let's-- let's just see where everybody stands, then we can talk through the options." Rick said glancing around the room.

"Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward." Shane said, causing me to roll my eyes and stare at the floor.

"Killing him, right? I mean, why even bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing." Dale said.

"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know." Rick said. 

"Well, I can tell you it's a small group. Maybe just me and Glenn." Dale said looking down at Glenn expectantly.

"Look, I-- I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this..." Glenn said looking guilty for not siding with Dale.

"They've got you scared!" Dale said in frustration.

"He's not one of us. And we've lost too many people already." Glenn said, trying to reason with Dale.

"How about you? Do you agree with this?" Dale asked Maggie.

"Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?" She suggested.

"Just another mouth to feed." Daryl threw in from the other side of the room, keeping his gaze focused on either Rick or the floor. I was a little surprised to see him wearing something other than a sleeveless flannel shirt, but I had to admit that button up long sleeve looked pretty good on him.

"Look, say we let him join us, right?" Shane's voice caught my attention. Damn, how long had I been standing there staring at Daryl like a creep? I hope no one noticed, that's embarrassing. Especially considering me and Daryl weren't on good terms right now.

"Maybe he's helpful, maybe he's nice." Shane continued. "We let our guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his 30 men." 

"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime that he may never even attempt? If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization."

"If you go through with it, how would you do it? Would he suffer?"  A blonde woman, I think her name was Anette, asked softly.

"We could hang him, right? Just snap his neck."

"I thought about that. Shooting may be more humane." Rick sighed.

"And what about the body?" T-dog asked. "Do we bury him?"

"Hold on, hold on! You're talking about this like it's already decided." Dale interrupted.

"You've been talking all day, going around in circles." Daryl said in frustration. "You just wanna go around in circles again?"

"This is a young man's life! And it is worth more than a five-minute conversation!" Dale said, tears welling up in his eyes. "Is this what it's come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him? You saved him and now look at us. He's been tortured. He's gonna be executed. How are we any better than those people that we're so afraid of?" Dale asked angrily, and I honestly had to agree with him. Them killing us, or us killing this kid, there wasn't much difference. 

"We all know what needs to be done." Shane said matter of factly.

"No, Dale is right." Rick defended. "We can't leave any stone unturned here. We have a responsibility-"

"So what's the other solution?" Andrea interrupted

"Let Rick finish!" Lori snapped.

"We haven't come up with a single viable option yet. I wish we could." Andrea sighed.

"Stop it. Just stop it. I'm sick of everybody arguing and fighting. I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide something like this. Please decide, either of you, both of you, but leave me out." Carol said, looking frustrated and disappointed.

"Not speaking out, or killing him yourself. There's no difference." Dale said.

"All right, that's enough. Anybody who wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance." Rick announced.

"You once said that we don't kill the living." Dale pleaded.

"Well, that was before the living tried to kill us." Rick replied harshly.

"But don't you see? If we do this, the people that we were, the world that we knew is dead. And this new world is ugly. It's Harsh. It's survival of the fittest. And that's a world I don't wanna live in. And I don't believe that any of you do. I can't. Please. Let's just do what's right." Dale said, trying to hold back tears. I felt so bad for him as everyone stood there watching him but no one taking his side.

"Isn't there anybody else who's gonna stand with me?" He pleaded desperately. My legs moved on their own and before I really realized what I was doing, I was standing next to Dale. I gave him a reassuring smile and placed a hand on his shoulder before looking at all the frustrated faces in front of me. 

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Shane growled angrily. I shot him a murderous glare, crossing my arms defiantly.

"Anybody else?" Rick asked before a fight got started. The room was deathly silent as everyone looked anywhere but at Dale.

"Are y'all gonna watch, too? No, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being." Dale said sadly. "I won't be a party to it." He said as he began walking out of the house alone. He briefly stopped next to Daryl, putting a hand on his shoulder and muttering "This group is broken." Before walking out the front door.

I sighed sadly, feeling bad for the poor guy, he was trying so hard to cling to his morals in this new world. I watched as everyone slowly started walking out and decided now was probably a good time to give Daryl his gun back. I walked outside, jogging up to Daryl and tapping him on the arm. He didn't even acknowledge my existence, he just ignored me and continued walking. What the hell, what was he, a thirteen year old girl? The silent treatment? Really?

I huffed and walked back over to camp, deciding to just figure it out later. Not like he needed his gun this instant anyway. 

Night fell quickly on the farm and before we knew it, the time had come for Rick to "take care of" Randall. Everyone sat around the campfire in stoic silence. No one was really in the mood for any conversation with what was going on in the barn. After a while, Rick came walking back to camp with with Carl in tow, a troubled expression on his face.

"We're keeping him in custody, for now" he said. 

He and Lori sent Carl to the tent and stepped away to have a private conversation, but it was interrupted as a gunshot followed by loud screaming came echoing through the dark. Everyone immediately jumped up in a panic, myself included, and ran toward where the screams were coming from. I could see Daryl running ahead of all of us and tackle something to the ground before jumping up and calling out for help.

My stomach turned at the sight of Dale's stomach all ripped open with his intestines hanging out. Tears flooded my eyes as Andrea fell to her knees sobbing and Rick desperately called out for Herschel to come help. I walked around Dale kneeling down next to him, across from Andrea, and held his shaking hand tightly as Herschel dropped the news that there was no saving him. 

"He's suffering" Andrea sobbed. "Someone do something!"

I watched through the tears as Rick seemed to have an internal battle with himself as he aimed his gun at Dale's head. The look of terror that came over Dale's face only made it worse as Rick struggled with his decision. Daryl walked over to Rick, taking the gun from his hand and kneeling down in front of Dale.

"Cooper, ya need to move" he mumbled, not looking in my direction. I nodded and got to my feet, obviously not going to start a fight with him right now, and moved to stand with the rest of the group.

"Sorry Brother" Daryl said softly as he aimed the gun at Dale's forehead and pulled the trigger.


	22. 21

A shiver went through me and I pulled my jacket tighter around me as we gathered for Dale's funeral. Everyone stood solemnly around the group of graves, the one on the end with freshly dug soil being the main focus today. Tears welled up in my eyes as Rick began speaking about Dale. 

Last night, after everything had calmed down a little, the guys took Dale to bury him while Andrea and I got rid of the walker that had killed him. The instant I saw the walker, I got a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach, it was the walker that Carl and I ran away from in the woods. The walker that I should have killed, but didn't. It had managed to follow us back and now Dale was dead. 

Warm tears trailed down my cold cheeks as Rick continued speaking. "Dale said this group was broken. The best way to honor him is to unbreak it. Set aside our differences and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives. Our safety. Our future. We're not broken. We're gonna prove him wrong. From now on we're gonna do it his way. That is how we honor Dale."

Once the funeral was finished everyone slowly started walking back toward camp. Herschel and his family had invited us to stay inside the house where it would be safer, so we were going to take down the tents and get ready to move. I didn't have much, everything fit in my backpack, so once I got my tent down I didn't have very much to carry. I walked over to the RV and opened the storage hatch that Glenn had gotten my tent from that first day, and put it back inside. There wasn't any need for a tent in the house, so why take it with me? 

Everyone was busy, either moving the vehicles like Rick had instructed or bringing everyone's things inside the house. I tossed my backpack inside, not really concerned about claiming a spot, and began helping with everyone else's stuff. It seemed pretty crazy to me that in the middle of the apocalypse these people still had so much stuff.

Once everything was moved inside I decided I needed to talk to Rick about what happened with Carl in the woods. I was feeling horribly guilty about it, so I could only imagine how Carl must be taking it.

"That thing you did last night..." I heard Rick say as I approached him ad Daryl who were talking on the porch. 

"Ain't no reason you should do all the heavy lifting." Daryl replied.

"So are you good with all this?" 

"I don't see you and I trading haymakers on the side of the road. Nobody'd win that fight." Daryl said, looking up when I coughed lightly to to get their attention. I didn't want them to think I was trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. 

"I'm gonna take a piss." Daryl said, quickly walking away from us. I rolled my eyes at his childish behavior, this was getting stupid.

"Cooper, what's going on?" Rick asked curiously, glancing the way Daryl had gone before turning back to me. I shook my head and pulled out my notepad but before I even got the chance, heavy footsteps started heading our way.

"Hey, man, you seen Carl lately?" Shane said walking up to us.

"He's inside with his mother." Rick replied coolly.

"Look, he came to me. Okay, I wasn't supposed to say anything, but he was out in the swamps yesterday, with her" Shane said pointing at me with a glare, "and they came across a walker stuck in the mud. They got scared, ran off."

"The same walker that killed Dale?" Rick asked.

"That's the one." Shane said, as I nodded sadly. I hated that Shane barged into my plans to tell Rick, but at least someone was telling him. 

"I'll have Lori talk to him." Rick sighed.

"Look, man, I think he wants to talk to his father." Shane said. "And besides man, what are you gonna do about her? She's was out there too, she should have killed the thing, but she didn't."

"Well, I need this Randall thing done already." Rick said, getting frustrated with Shane's arguing.

"Man, that needs to wait, okay?" Shane said. My eyebrows raised in confusion, after all the fussing that Shane did about wanting Randall taken care of, now he wanted to postpone it. Something didn't seem right about that.

"It's my call." Rick said sternly.

"How about I ride out with Daryl? Good for us to spend a little time together." He suggested. 

"Nah, I need you here." Rick said.

"You know, your son, he said he took a gun." Shane said looking back at me with a hard glare. "Wonder where it went to?" 

I rolled my eyes at Shane and pulled the gun from my pants, setting it on the table in front of Rick. "You should get that back to Daryl, huh?" Shane said condescendingly. I gave Shane a murderous glare and stormed away, in no mood for his attitude today.

I was walking around the property, trying to calm my nerves when I noticed none other than Shane walking over to the shed where Randall was being held. I knew that asshole was up to something. I hurried around the front of the shed to confront him but there was no one there. Suddenly a rough hand grabbed my arm and my head was slammed against the side of the shed with so much force my vision went blurry. 

"Just can't stay the hell out of my way, can you?" Shane growled in my ear as he pulled my hands behind my back roughly and tied them with rope. 

"Shh! Go that way!" Shane hissed as he shoved Randall through the trees, dragging me roughly alongside him. Shane was going to kill us, I just knew it. He wanted us gone, and now he had the perfect opportunity to do whatever he wanted to us both. Shane yanked me forward with him when Randall suddenly fell down, kneeling in front of the boy and removing his blindfold. 

"I get it. I'm the last face you probably want to see, huh?" Shane chuckled as Randall whimpered through the tape across his mouth.

"Listen, I'm gonna take you up out of here, okay? I'm gonna get this off of you so you can breathe, but I want you to keep quiet." Shane said, grabbing the corner of the tape. "You listen good. Do you hear me? Don't do nothing stupid." He said before pulling the tape from Randall's mouth. 

"Hey, hey, keep it quiet!" Shane hissed as Randall cried out in pain from the tape ripping from his skin. "Now your group, you know where they're at? 

"No, I don't." The boy said nervously and Shane smacked him over the head.

"Now I'm the only shot of you getting out of these woods alive. You hear me? Now you start talking, boy. Where are they at?"

"We had a camp set up off the highway. About five miles from here. Who knows if they're still there?" Randall answered quickly.

"Okay." Shane said looking pleased. 

Pulling Randall back to his feet, Shane shoved him ahead, ordering him to lead us to his group. Maybe he wasn't going to kill us? But if he wasn't, why would he bring me along too? We continued on for about ten minutes, listening to Randall's constant chattering and Shane continuously telling him to shut up. 

I gasped when Shane suddenly shoved me to the ground and stomped over to Randall with a crazed look in his eyes. This was it, Shane was finally going to get what he wanted. I squeezed my eyes shut, tears streaming down my cheeks, as I heard Randall scream followed by a loud snap and a heavy thud. Shit. I had to think of something quick or I was a goner just like Randall. My eyes flew open when Shane yanked me harshly by a handful of my hair and slammed my head against a tree. My head throbbed and spots clouded my vision as I fell to the ground. Of course he wouldn't make it quick for me, sick bastard! I felt a crushing weight on my chest as Shane held me down with his knee and wrapped his hands tightly around my throat. I couldn't fight him very easily, my hands were still tied behind my back, but that didn't stop me from swinging my legs up at him, desperately trying to kick him off of me. Fighting proved to be pointless, Shane's large hand just squeezed harder and my vision started to go dark. This was it. There really was no getting out of this one. Shit.


	23. 22

Daryl POV:

"Oh, hell no!" T-dog yelled from the shed where he was supposed to be getting Randall from.

"What's wrong?" Rick asked.

"Randall's missing!" T-dog said loudly.

"Missing? How?" I growled angrily. Why couldn't one damn thing ever go smoothly around here?

We all ran over to the shed, inspecting the cuffs, the door, the lock, everything. There just wasn't any way that kid could have gotten out of here, not that I saw anyway. This didn't make any damn sense.

"Rick! Rick!" Shane came stumbling out of the woods, his face covered in blood.

"What happened?" Rick asked.

"They're armed! They got my gun!" He yelled angrily.

"They?" I asked in confusion.

"Little bastard just snuck up on me. Your girlfriend was helping him escape! Clocked me in the face!" Shane growled.

"Cooper? Ain't no way in hell, man!" I replied quickly, choosing to ignore the girlfriend comment. Who the hell did he think he was fooling with this story of his? 

"Well, where is she then?" He asked pointing to the group standing around the shed. Everyone looked around but sure enough, no Cooper anywhere to be found. 

"I'm telling ya man, she was helping the kid escape! Probably planning to run off with him too." He sneered. 

"All right, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody back in the house." Rick said, quickly changing the subject. "Glenn, Daryl, come with us." I nodded, pulling my crossbow off of my back and loading an arrow. I didn't believe Shane for a minute, but Cooper wasn't here and I needed to find out why.

"T, I'm gonna need that gun." Shane said, taking the gun from T-dog's hand.

"Just let them go. That was the plan, wasn't it, to just let him go?"

"The plan was to cut him loose far away from here, not on our front step with a gun." Rick replied.

"Don't go out there. You don't know what could happen." Carol cried nervously.

"Get everybody back in the house. Lock all the doors and stay put!" Rick called out as me and Glenn followed him and Shane into the woods.

"I saw them head up through the trees that way before I blacked out. I'm not sure how long." Shane continued spewing his bullshit as we searched for Cooper and Randall.

"They couldn't have gotten far. He's hobbled, exhausted..." Rick reasoned.

"And they're armed." Glenn said nervously. I gave him a quick glare, annoyed that he was believing this shit so easily. 

"Can you track them?" Rick asked me.

"No, I don't see nothing." I said inspecting the ground. There were no signs that anything had been through here in days.

"Hey, look, there ain't no use in tracking them, okay? They went that way." Shane said, getting annoyed.

"We need to pair up. We spread out, we just chase them down. That's it." Rick said.

"Kid weighs a buck-25 soaking wet, and Cooper's smaller than that. You trying to tell us they got the jump on you?" I asked Shane, just waiting to hear whatever excuse he came up with this time.

"I say a rock pretty much evens those odds, wouldn't you?" He growled angrily.

"Alright, knock it off. You and Glenn start heading up the right flank. Me and Shane'll take the left." Rick said, stopping the fight before it could start. "Remember, Randall's not the only threat out there. Keep an eye out for each other." 

"This is pointless."I sighed after almost an hour of searching. It was already dark and we hadn't found shit. "You got a light?" I asked Glenn, turning the flashlight on and scanning the area. I don't know why I even bothered with this shit for so long, I knew Shane was lying and we weren't gonna find anything. 

"Come on." I said, leading Glenn back toward the shed.

"We're just back to square one." Glenn said in confusion.

"If you're gonna do a thing, you might as well do it right." I said shining the light down on the ground. "There's three sets of tracks right here. Shane must've followed them a lot longer than he said." I continued following the trail, shining the flashlight around for any more clues. 

"There's fresh blood on this tree." I said shining the light at the on the tree trunk. "There's more tracks. Looks like they're walking in tandem." I said following the three sets of tracks.

"There was a little dust up right here." I said pointing to where the grass and leaves were all scraped up.

"What do you mean?" Glenn asked, looking at the ground.

"I mean something went down." I replied.

"This is getting weird." Glenn sighed.

We followed the trail a little longer until we heard footsteps and twigs snapping nearby. I turned off the flashlight as me and Glenn ducked behind some trees, peeking around and watching as a nearby walker approached something hungrily.

"What is that?" Glenn asked curiously, looking at whatever was about to become the walkers supper.

We didn't have to wait long to find out when a small familiar looking boot swung around, kicking the walker in the face. 

"Shit!" I growled raising my crossbow and running toward the walker as it lunged again. Cooper was pinned to the ground, with her feet on the walkers chest, desperately trying to keep it's snapping jaws away from her.

"Cooper?" Glenn called in surprise as I quickly aimed my crossbow. Just as I released the arrow the walker turned toward us growling hungrily, my arrow only hitting his chest. 

"Randall?" Glenn repeated in the same surprised tone when we saw the walker's face. 

Walker Randall jumped off of Cooper and lunged at me, falling backwards when I hit it in the head with my crossbow. Just as he was getting back up Glenn sunk his blade into his skull, killing him for good. 

I hurried over to Cooper, who was sitting up now, struggling with something behind her back. I clicked the flashlight on, shining it behind her to see what was wrong. Her wrists were bound tightly with rope behind her back.

"That son of a bitch!" I growled, pulling out my knife and cutting the rope carefully. Cooper looked up at me with tears in her eyes as she rubbed her wrists gingerly. I felt my anger boiling over when I saw her face. She was bruised and bloody and there were deep purple hand shaped bruises on her neck. Shane best pray I don't ever get my hands on him after this! I wrapped an arm around Cooper, noticing how badly she was shaking, and slowly helped her stand up. Once she was on her feet she threw her arms around me tightly, her hot tears soaking my shirt. I stiffened in her grasp, uncomfortable with the display, especially in front of Glenn, but decided to just suck it up this time. I hesitantly wrapped an arm around her, rubbing her back gently as she sniffled softly into my chest.

"What the hell happened to her?" Glenn asked, scanning the trees nervously. "Do you think it was Randall?" 

"No" I said flatly as Cooper seemed to pull herself back together. 

She released her death grip on me, taking a step back and wiping the tears from her cheeks quickly. She looked embarrassed, like she was ashamed of losing her grip in front of us or something. I couldn't help but feel like absolute shit for allowing this to happen to her in the first place. I should have been protecting her. I gently nudged her with my elbow to get her attention, like I had done so many times before, feeling a little better when her doe brown eyes met mine with a look of curiosity rather than anger.

"You gonna be alright?" I asked quietly. She nodded, giving a half ass smile, I guess to try and make me feel better, but I could see how shaken up she was.

"Come on, still got work to do" I said picking up my crossbow and walking over to Randall's corpse.

"Got his neck broke." I said pointing out the obvious. "He's got no bites." I said after carefully inspecting Randall's body.

"Yeah, none you can see." Glenn said from beside me.

"No, I'm telling you he died from this." I said looking up at him. 

"How's that possible?" Glenn asked curiously. I shook my head and glanced over at Cooper, who was keeping her distance from Walker Randall. She looked like hell, leaves and sticks tangled in her knotted blonde hair, and that ridiculously oversized jacket of hers covered in dirt stains.

"Let's get back" I said getting to my feet. "We need to let the doc have a look at her."

"Maybe Rick and Shane will be back and we can figure out what's going on here" Glenn sighed as we started walking back to the farm. 

I stuck close to Cooper the whole time, keeping a watchful eye on her. She looked unsteady on her feet and I was worried she might pass out. We were about half way back to the farm when a loud gunshot rang through the air.  I wonder if that was Rick finally handling the Shane problem...


	24. 23

Daryl, Glenn, and I entered the back door of the farm house. I was glad to finally be out of the woods, I felt like I had been hit by a truck and I was extremely thankful that Daryl and Glenn had found me before Randall could bite me. I was even more thankful that Shane had gotten sloppy in his rush to dispose of us, and had only choked me until I passed out instead of killing me. 

"Rick and Shane ain't back?" Daryl asked as we walked into the living room where most of the group was currently at. 

"No." Lori answered

"We heard a shot." Daryl mentioned.

"What the hell happened to her?" T-dog asked looking at me curiously.

"Wasn't she helping Randall escape?" Andrea added quickly. "What happened to him?" I looked at her in shock, so that's what Shane had told them, that I was helping Randall to escape?

"We found him. And she wasn't helpin him do nothing." Daryl said roughly.

"Is he back in the shed?" Andrea asked.

"He's a walker." Daryl replied bluntly.

"Did you find the walker that bit him?" Herschel asked.

"No, the weird thing is he wasn't bit." Glenn said.

"His neck was broke." Daryl said.

"So he fought back." Maggie stated.

"The thing is, Cooper, Shane, and Randall's tracks were right on top of each other. And Shane ain't no tracker, so he didn't come up behind them like he said. They were together."

"Ok, but what about her? Doesn't that mean she was helping them? Why else would she have been out there?" Carol glanced at me skeptically.

"Not the way we found her, I'd say she was more of a hostage than an accomplice" Glenn said.

"Her hands were tied behind her back, she was beat all to hell, could barely even stand up on her own." Daryl said gesturing towards me. It felt like every pair of eyes in the room was suddenly on me. Feeling uncomfortable, I turned my gaze down to the floor, avoiding all the confused stares.

"Would you please get back out there, find Rick and Shane and find out what on earth is going on?" Lori asked Daryl. 

"You got it." Daryl said turning on his heel and heading back outside. A wave of fear crept up my spine. What if Rick and Shane came back while Daryl was gone? Or worse, just Shane. What would he do to me when he realized he didn't actually kill me?

I quickly rushed after him, grabbing hold of his sleeve once he stepped out on the porch. I wasn't usually one to show when I was scared, but this time I had to admit, I was completely terrified. Shane had already killed Randall and almost succeeded in murdering me too. The last thing I wanted was to be left here with no backup. Daryl didn't look at me though, his gaze stayed focused on the field near the barn. I looked out there and I swear my heart jumped up into my throat. Hundreds of walkers were pouring out of the woods and they were heading straight for us. I vaguely noticed that some of the others had followed us out onto the porch and when they noticed the herd they all froze.

"Patricia, kill the lights." Herschel said in a hushed tone. The blonde woman hurrying inside to darken the house.

"I'll get the guns." Andrea said running inside also.

"Maybe they're just passing, like the herd on the highway. Should we just go inside?" Carol said uneasily.

"Not unless there's a tunnel downstairs I don't know about. A herd that size will tear the house down." Daryl said.

"Carl's gone!" Lori cried as she ran on to the porch.

"What?" Daryl asked in frustration.

"He was upstairs. I can't find him anymore." She replied shakily.

"Maybe he's hiding." Carol suggested feebly.

"He's supposed to be upstairs. I'm not leaving without my boy." Lori said sternly.

"We're not. We're gonna look again. We're gonna find him." Carol said ushering Lori inside quickly just as Andrea was coming back with a large bag of guns.

"I got the number It's no use." Daryl said as everyone started loading the guns.

"You can go if you want." Herschel replied. My grip tightened on Daryl's arm, that was exactly what we needed to do. There was no way we could survive a herd this size, our best chance of survival was to run while we still could. 

"We'll kill as many as we can, and we'll use the cars to lead the rest of them off the farm." Andrea said. 

"Are you serious?" Daryl asked.

"This is my farm. I'll die here." Herschel said cocking his gun.

"All right. It's as good a night as any." He mumbled, finally looking at me. I pulled on his arm, shaking my head to let him know I didn't like this suicide mission that he just agreed to.

"Hey" he said, his steady blue eyes holding me captive as he leaned a little closer to me "it'll be alright" he said in a hushed voice "just go back inside, you'll be safe. Stay with Lori and Carol." He said grabbing my arm gently and leading me over to the door. "If Shane comes back, he won't touch you with them around." He said. I nodded lightly, still not happy about this whole idiotic plan.

"If he does come back, I'll deal with him after. Alright?" He added, opening the door for me to go inside. I nodded again and quickly threw my arms around his neck, squeezing him in a tight hug. A rush of warmth went through me when he wrapped a strong arm around my waist without hesitation, holding me firmly against him.

"Just do what I said and you'll be fine" his husky voice sent a shiver up my spine. A second later, he pulled away from me, lightly pushing me into the house before hopping over the rail of the porch. I watched through the window as he ran to his motorcycle, the engine roaring to life loudly before he drove toward the herd.

"The barn is on fire. They're headed for it." Patricia said as I walked back into the living room.

"Maybe Rick set it to draw them in." Beth said looking out the window. I noticed Lori and Carol coming down the stairs and walked over to them.

"I can't find him anywhere." Lori cried.

"So maybe he snuck outside." Carol suggested.

"What do I do? He was here." 

"He must've run off, maybe looking for Rick, or went after Randall himself." Carol said, desperately trying to keep Lori calm.

"Maybe he set the fire." Patricia said from the window. 

Carol suggested we go through the house to look for Carl again, just to be sure they hadn't accidentally missed him the first time. 

"I checked the shed." Carol said as the three of us met up on the porch after searching.

"I can't find him anywhere." Lori said shaking her head.

"He's not in the cellar or the attic?" Carol asked me and I shook my head no.

Carol began trying to convince Lori that it was time to just get off of the farm. The yard around the house was starting to get over run with walkers. Herschel was standing a few feet away from the porch steadily shooting down as many walkers as he possibly could, but it was pointless. There were still hundreds of them everywhere around us. I my eyes scanned across the sea of walkers, desperately hoping to catch a glimpse of Daryl on his motorcycle, but I couldn't see him anywhere. 

"Cooper, Lori it's time to go!" I hesitantly turned around and followed Carol and Lori, praying that Daryl was ok. Beth and Patricia followed close behind us as we jogged through the yard, trying to get to one of the few vehicles that was left. 

A loud piercing scream stopped all of us in our tracks as Patricia was swarmed by walkers, still clutching tightly to Beth's hand. Lori and I pulled Beth free, and as soon as we turned around T-dog and Andrea pulled up in the old blue truck that was splattered with blood. We rushed over to the truck as Andrea hopped out to let us in. 

"Get Carol!" Lori cried when she noticed the older woman wasn't with us anymore. Andrea ran after her, shooting down the walkers as she went. Lori Beth and I all squeezed into the truck with T-dog, watching anxiously as Andrea continued on further. Walkers swarmed around the truck, rocking it violently as we watched helplessly as Andrea got taken down by a walker.

"They got her! We gotta go!" Lori cried as T-dog threw the truck into drive and plowed through the swarm of walkers crowding the truck. 

I turned around, looking through the rear window as we left the farm behind. Beth clung to Lori, sobbing into her shirt as we drove off toward the rising sun. Once it was a little more light out I noticed Lori looking around through the windows.

"Hey, we gotta turn around." She said suddenly.

"Straight back to that herd? No." T-dog said.

"The highway's back there. That's where they'll be. Rick will go back to where we first broke down, and Glenn too." Lori argued and I looked at T-dog. She was right, everyone would meet up back on the highway. If there was any chance of that, we needed to take it. We needed to find our people.

"We're headed east, get to the coast. We should've done that from the jump. Look, we've got a shot to get out of here in one piece." He argued.

"I gotta find Carl." She replied frantically "He may have escaped with somebody."

I hate to say it, but they're on their own. There's no way to even begin to start looking." T-dog tried to convince us.

"You're wrong." She said sternly

"Look, we can't go back. I'm sorry. It's suicide!" 

"All right, then let me out." Lori said opening the passenger side door and effectively getting T-dog to stop the truck.

"You turn around, or you let us out right now." Lori said.

"I should do it, you know. And I would, if I didn't think Dixon would hunt me down for leaving you on the side of the road!" He said giving me a frustrated glare. "You're out of your damn minds." He mumbled as he shifted the truck into drive and made a U-turn and I tried to hide the grin that spread across my face.


	25. 24

We were about halfway back to the highway when a loud engine roared not far ahead of us. T-dog sped up and it wasn't long before we caught up to the familiar light green SUV being lead by Daryl's motorcycle. A huge wave of relief washed over me knowing that we had made the right decision to head back. Lori was right, everyone was going to meet back up on the highway where this all started.

We eventually pulled up to the familiar spot, the abandoned yellow car still covered with the supplies meant for Sophia. Daryl killed his motorcycle's engine, Carol quickly hopping off the back, and I saw Glenn and Maggie get out of the SUV. Lori quickly flung the door of the truck open and jumped out followed closely by Beth. I slid out of the truck smiling as I watched Lori and Beth each embrace their families emotionally. I looked at the people standing around on the highway, there were only a few of us left now. I caught Daryl's eye and  slowly made my way over to stand next to him. 

"Where'd you find everyone?" Rick asked Daryl as he stepped closer to us.

"Well, those guys' tail lights zigzagging all over the road. Figured he had to be Asian, driving like that." Daryl said with a grin, trying to lighten the mood. 

"Good one." Glenn said with a smile as everyone chuckled.

"Where's the rest of us?" Daryl asked, eyes scanning over the group.

"We're the only ones who made it so far." Rick sighed.

"Shane?" Lori asked and my jaw almost hit the ground. After everything that psycho did, that's was the first person she asked about? 

The look on Rick's face spoke volumes as he looked down at the pavement shaking his head. My heart went out to him at that moment, obviously something happened, but I couldn't deny the relief I felt that he was gone and never coming back.

"Andrea?" Glenn asked a moment later.

"She saved me, then I lost her." Carol said.

"We saw her go down." T-dog said from his spot, leaning against the door of the truck.

Beth told them that Patricia hadn't made it and we found out that Jimmy hadn't survived either. There was a short argument about going back to find Andrea, which I thought was a suicide mission, and Rick quickly shut it down. He made a valid point that she was either dead or not on the farm anymore and no one could really argue with that so the conversation quickly shifted to where we would go next. 

Soon everyone was piling into the vehicles minus the truck T-dog was driving since it was almost out of gas. Daryl sat on his motorcycle, starting up the loud engine and looking at me.

"You walking or what?" He asked impatiently. I was a little surprised he would let me ride with him, I know we had kind of let things go since shit started repeatedly hitting the fan, but I wasn't sure how ok he was with me yet. Not wanting to push his buttons since we seemed to be on good terms for now, I quickly climbed onto the back of the motorcycle and wrapped my arms around him, bracing myself as he quickly sped off after everyone else.

We had been riding for several hours when a honk came from the back of the line, stopping us in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nothing but trees and a small stream.

I climbed off the back of the bike, thankful for the break since my butt was completely numb and my hips were killing me. Riding a motorcycle always seemed like it would be fun, but after a few hours it was pretty uncomfortable. As soon as I was off a chill went through me causing me to shiver. I hadn't realized how cold it was until I didn't have Daryl's extra body heat keeping me warm anymore. 

"You out?" Daryl asked as we all gathered in the middle of the road.

"Running on fumes." Rick replied. 

I pulled my jacket tighter around me, trying to keep warm as everyone started arguing about what we should do next. I honestly had no interest in continuing on tonight, I was exhausted, starving, and extremely sore from the beating I had gotten from Shane. 

"We'll make camp tonight over there, get on the road at the break of day" Rick said pointing to a couple of strange rock walls off on the side of the road that would actually provide us some pretty good cover.

"Does this feel right to you?" Carol asked Daryl skeptically and I looked at her in confusion.

"What if walkers come through, or another group like Randall's?" Beth asked Rick nervously.

"You know I found Randall, right? He had turned, but he wasn't bit." Daryl said. Everyone immediately started questioning Rick about what happened, not really giving him much of an opportunity to talk for himself.

"Shane killed Randall. Just like he always wanted to" Daryl said, silencing everyone. "He damn near killed her too" he added looking at me, everyone else's gaze immediately following. I stood frozen as they all waited expectantly, probably wanting me to tell them exactly what happened out there.

"We're all infected." Rick said, effectively taking all the attention off of me.

"What?" Lori asked in shock.

"At the CDC, Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it." He said solemnly. The news didn't shock me, honestly I had already figured it out as soon as Randall had come back and tried to eat me. The looks of shock and betrayal on everyone's faces was what shocked me the most.

Most of the group immediately turned on Rick, questioning his decision and loyalty to the group. I decided to dip out at that point, getting a little tired of the endless bickering, and decided to go stand near the front of the SUV. The engine was still warm from running for a while and it was radiating just enough heat to knock the chill out of me. I leaned against the front of the vehicle, soaking up the residual heat like a cat, while the group finished their arguments and split up. Daryl walked over to me looking annoyed. 

"We're stayin here tonight. I'm going out to get some firewood, stay close to the group" Daryl said pulling the string back on his crossbow and loading it. I nodded when he looked over at me and watched as he quickly disappeared into the woods. I sure wasn't about to argue to go out there when I was perfectly happy here where I was slightly warm. 

A little while later Daryl came back with an arm full of sticks and we all moved over to the rock wall where Rick said we would stay. It was just starting to get dark when Daryl was able to get the fire going really well.

"We're not safe with him, keeping something like that from us. Why do you need him? He's just gonna pull you down." I heard Carol mumble from Daryl's other side.

"No. Rick's done all right by me." Daryl said.

"You're his henchman, and I'm a burden. You deserve better." She said. It was really starting to bug me how clingy she was acting with him, but I quickly pushed it aside. It's not like I have a claim on him or anything, I shouldn't be getting so jealous.

"What do you want?" He asked, sounding frustrated.

"A man of honor." She said weakly.

"Rick has honor." Daryl defended, tossing another stick into the fire.

I sighed as the others seemed to take Carol's lead, wanting to split up the group and take off on their own just because they heard a few twigs snapping in the dark. Seriously, how much more could they find to argue about right now? It seemed like they were just itching for some disagreement.

"The last thing we need is for everyone to be running off in the dark." Rick said suddenly. "We don't have the vehicles. No one's traveling on foot. Don't panic."

"I'm not I'm not sitting here, waiting for another herd to blow through. We need to move, now." Maggie argued.

"No one is going anywhere." Rick said sternly.

"Do something." Carol demanded.

"I am doing something! I'm keeping this group together, alive! I've been doing that all along, no matter what!" Rick said angrily. "I didn't ask for this.  
I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ's sake!" He growled looking at everyone's shocked faces. I was pretty surprised too, mostly that Rick was able to bring himself to do something like that.

"You saw what he was like, how he pushed me, how he compromised us, how he threatened us. He staged the whole Randall thing, led me out to put a bullet in my back." Rick explained. "He gave me no choice. He was my friend, but he came after me. My hands are clean." He paused again, taking in all the judgemental looks he was getting.

"Maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead. I say there's a place for us, but maybe maybe it's just another pipe dream. Maybe maybe I'm fooling myself again. Why don't you go and find out yourself? Send me a postcard. Go on, there's the door. You can do better? Let's see how far you get." Rick said gesturing towards the dark woods, waiting for anyone to respond. I looked around at everyone, not surprised that no one decided to take him up on his offer. They were all completely terrified, and going out there alone was practically a death sentence.

"No takers? Fine. But get one thing straight, you're staying. This isn't a democracy anymore." He said giving us all a serious look before walking off to keep watch.


	26. 25

It had been about a week since we lost the farm and we were on the move, desperately searching for supplies and a safe place to stay. The weather was steadily getting colder and with Lori being pregnant, which I just heard about a few days ago, we couldn’t take the risk of her getting sick. It was getting late already and all we had managed to find was an old two story house about a half mile off of the highway. We cautiously followed the long gravel driveway that cut through the surrounding woods and lead right up to the large front yard. 

"This will do for now" Rick said as we all stood in the front yard. 

Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and T-dog went inside first to make sure the house was safe while the rest of us waited near the vehicles keeping watch for walkers. A low whistle from the front door let us know the coast was clear. Each of us grabbed a bag from the back of the SUV, filled with the few blankets and cans of food we had managed to collect so far, and quickly went inside. 

The house definitely wasn't anything special, old and drafty, and every surface was completely covered in dust. That was a good sign at least. That meant there weren't any other people here. Maybe if we were lucky the kitchen would still be untouched and we could finally get a decent stockpile of food. Everyone crowded in the living room, claiming their spot for the night, and getting settled in while Carl picked through the kitchen for anything we could use. I sat down against the wall near the door since I would be on watch part of the night. Carl came back a moment later with his arms full cans and a can opener. Jackpot. He cut open several cans and started handing them out. Daryl grabbed a can as he was walking by and sat down next to me, holding the mixed fruit out for me to take. I signed 'thank you' even though I knew he didn't understand, and took the can from him. I hadn't written in my notepad very much since we lost the farm, mostly because it was very slow and also because I really just didn't have a lot to say these days. Once I had picked out a few pieces of fruit I handed the can back over to him so he could eat too. 

We all sat in silence as we ate, Daryl and I passing the can of fruit back and forth between us until it was all gone. Once everyone was finished eating we all decided to go to sleep early, wanting to get rest while we could just in case we might have to run in the middle of the night. I curled up on the floor against the wall, resting my head on my arm and trying to ignore the cold drafty breeze that seemed to seep down into my bones. It was hard to fall asleep when I was shivering so much, but eventually exhaustion won out and I finally drifted off.

It felt like I had only slept for five minutes when I felt T-dog shaking me awake, but the darkness that surrounded me when I finally forced my eyes open told me it had actually been several hours. I patted his arm gently to let him know that I was up so he could go get some rest while I take over watch duty. I saw T-dog's shadowed form creep across the room and lay down before i finally made myself get up. Slowly pulling myself off of the floor, I tried to be quiet as I walked to the door and failed miserably when I tripped over something in the dark. I barely caught my balance before face planting, and carefully shuffled the rest of the way to the door as quickly as I could so I wouldn't wake anyone up. 

As soon as I stepped outside the cool air sent a shiver through me. I really needed to get some thicker clothes soon or I'd freeze to death this winter. I sat down on the steps of the front porch, checking my side to make sure my knife was easy to access. The unexpected sound of the front door creaking behind me made me jump and turn around.

"It's just me" Daryl said as he shut the door quietly and sat down on the stairs next to me. I pulled my notepad from my back pocket, thankful that the moon was bright enough tonight that I could see to write. 

'Couldn't sleep?' I wrote and handed it to him. 

"Kinda hard to when someone kicks the shit outta me on their way outside" he said with a smirk, handing the notepad back to me. 

'Sorry' I scribbled quickly, feeling bad for waking him up. He just shrugged and turned his attention to the thick woods just across the yard. We sat there for a few minutes in comfortable silence, before I picked up my notepad and started writing again.

'Why haven't you said anything yet about me leaving?' It was a question that had been eating me up inside for a little while and there really hadn't been any good time to ask him until now. 

"What's there to say?" He replied. "You had to do what you had to do. Can't change it, might as well just move on from it." He said, seeming like he had thought a lot about what he would say when this subject finally came up. I nodded my head in agreement, glad he was willing to let my stupidity go this time. 

Moans coming from down the driveway caught both of our attention as a lone walker came shuffling slowly towards the house. We both got to our feet, preparing for a group to be following it, but it seemed to be just the one walker. Daryl relaxed a little and held his crossbow out in front of me. What? I quickly looked at him in confusion, wondering what in the world he was thinking. 

"It's your watch, you kill it" he said and I shook my head in protest. I'd never held a crossbow in my life, I would probably end up shooting myself instead of the walker.

"You can do it" he said wiggling the crossbow in front of me impatiently. I sighed and took the crossbow hesitantly, glad the walker was moving so slow or we would be dead by now. I raised the crossbow awkwardly, not used to the weight, and aimed it at the walker. Daryl waited patiently as I lined up the shot and released the arrow. It was a pretty good shot for my first time, hitting it in the chest, but not good enough.

"Reload" Daryl said from beside me and I looked at him like he was crazy. He didn't budge, keeping his steady gaze on the walker that was getting uncomfortably close to us now. I set the front of the crossbow down like I had seen Daryl do so many times before and tried to pull the string back. Tried being the key word. I pulled as hard as I could, the string digging into my hands as I pulled harder, but couldn't get it far enough to latch. Daryl seemed to realize that it just wasn't happening and took the crossbow from me. He pulled the string back effortlessly and quickly loaded a bolt, not wasting a second before releasing it. The walker, which was only a few feet away from us by now, dropped like a rock with the arrow still sticking out of its forehead. I sighed as I looked at the deep red lines across my hands from the crossbow string. Herschel had finally let me take my wrist brace off a few days ago and I had already managed to hurt myself again. 

"Let me see" Daryl said grabbing my hands before I had a chance to shove them in my pockets. "It'll bruise" he said as he gently traced the red line on my left hand with his thumb. "You need the practice though" he added before releasing my hands and walking over to the walker to retrieve his arrows.

"Need to get you a pair of gloves" he said as we sat back down on the porch steps "your damn hands are like ice." He huffed making me laugh. 

'I'm going to freeze to death this winter' I signed without thinking, only realizing when I noticed the confused look on Daryl's face. I sighed, picking up my notepad to write what I had said, and made up my mind that I was going to teach these people damn sign language whether they liked it or not.


	27. 26

Cold and rain are a horrible mix. Especially when you're running for your life from a massive group of walkers. 

We had been on the run for a while now. I wasn't sure how long it had been, but if Lori's growing stomach was anything to judge by, it had probably been somewhere between three or four months. It had been a miserable time for all of us, constantly running, ducking from house to house, scrounging up whatever supplies we could find. It was by some stroke of luck that we had come across a few thrift stores along the way that hadn't been raided too badly and had managed to find plenty of warm clothes and jackets for everyone. Which doesn't really do much when the sky decides to start dumping buckets of freezing water all over you. 

We had just found an old trailer park to raid when the the first rumbles of thunder started overhead. Rick said we would hold up in one of the bigger houses for the night and spend the afternoon scavenging the rest of the houses for supplies. After clearing the biggest house Rick, T-dog, Glenn, Maggie, Daryl, and I split into groups of two, each taking walkie talkies that we had found, to search the other houses. The rest stayed behind to cover the windows in the big house and make sure it would be as safe as possible once we got back so we could settle in for the night without any worries.

Daryl and I walked down the empty street cautiously, heading to the very back of the trailer park to search while the others split up the houses in the middle and front. I held my knife tightly as we approached the last house on the long dead end street. Daryl stepped up the rickety stairs and knocked loudly on the door while I kept watch to make sure nothing snuck up behind us. When no walkers came to attack us from inside the house, he pried the door open and we both went inside. There wasn't much to find in the small rundown trailer house, just a few cans of food and a pack of batteries so we moved on. The next few houses were pretty much the same, hardly anything left of use. It had started raining pretty hard by the time we finished the fifth house and I wasn't looking forward to going outside and getting soaked, but there wasn't much choice in the matter. 

The sky was dark and freezing heavy raindrops pelted us when we stepped outside to continue our search. Daryl lead the way around the next house to get to the front door but he came to a sudden stop and grabbed my arm, yanking me back around the side of the house with him. I didn't even hesitate to find out what it was that spooked him as Daryl practically drug me through the muddy yards toward a different house. There's one thing I learned being out here, if it's got Daryl running away, you better start hauling ass too. I risked a glance behind us as we rounded the side of one of the sturdier looking houses and felt my stomach drop. A huge herd had come up on us, probably following the sounds of the thunder storm. I ducked down, peeking around the corner of the house as Daryl worked on getting the door open without breaking it. A broken door would be completely useless against a herd like this. 

"Come on!" Daryl called softly once he got the door open. I jumped to my feet and ran up the stairs, breathing a sigh of relief when Daryl shut the door and locked it behind me. He quickly pulled the walkie talkie from his pocket and started calling for Rick as quietly as he could.

"Rick!" Daryl hissed into the walkie desperately.

"I'm here" Rick replied.

"There's a herd coming, gotta be at least a hundred of them. Get out of there! Now!" He warned, looking through the peephole in the front door.

"Where are y'all? Are you ok?" Rick asked quickly.

"We're fine. We hid in a house down here before they saw us."

"Alright. Sit tight for now. Stay safe." Rick huffed. It sounded like he was running.

Daryl shoved the walkie back in his pocket and continued to watch the herd through the peephole. It was cold, we were soaked to the bone, hungry, and now trapped in here like rats. What a fantastic day this had turned out to be. The house was pretty dark, the storm clouds outside blocking out most of the natural light from the windows, but I could see well enough to walk around without tripping on anything and making a ton of noise. 

Keeping my footsteps as light as possible, I made my way to the living room. We were probably going to be stuck here a while, so I might as well make myself comfortable. I gently set the duffle bag of supplies on the ground and grabbed a throw blanket from the back of the couch. I was still drenched and freezing from being out in that storm. Daryl watched me cautiously from his spot by the front door as I wrapped the blanket around myself and settled into a comfortable position on the couch. I propped my feet up on the coffee table and closed my eyes, trying to enjoy the comfort while I could. It was rare these days for us to sit on anything but the floor or the ground since Lori always got comfort priority over the rest of us. A few minutes later I felt the couch dip down next to me and I opened my eyes. Daryl had his feet on the table too, but still held his crossbow in his lap with a tense look on his face. That was nothing new though, he always looked tense these days, and tired too. We sat there for a little while, listening to the sounds of the rain hitting the roof mixed with the moans of the undead as they shuffled around aimlessly outside. 

"Daryl" Rick's muffled voice broke through the darkness. Daryl pulled the walkie talkie from his pocket and adjusted the volume so the walkers wouldn't hear.

"Yea" he answered in a hushed tone.

"Just checking in. Y'all still good?" 

"Yea, we're good" Daryl replied glancing at me. "Just waiting it out."

"I think that's all we can do right now." Rick sighed. "The storm has them going all over the place. They're following the lightning I think. Hopefully they'll leave once it passes."

"And if they don't?" Daryl asked.

"Then we'll deal with it" Rick said.

Daryl set the walkie talkie on the table between our feet then sat back and started messing with his crossbow. Ten minutes of his constant fidgeting was all I could handle before I started getting annoyed. This storm didn't seem like it would finish any time soon and I'll be damned if I sit here all night with Daryl so wound up. I quickly reached over and took the crossbow from Daryl's hands, earning myself an irritated look.

"What the hell?" Daryl growled.

'Stop or I'll shoot you with it.' I signed slowly. I had been teaching sign language to some of the group, the ones who cared to learn, but I still had to slow myself down so they could understand. Daryl was usually busy doing something else for the group, either hunting, keeping watch, or helping Rick with planning, so I was surprised that he was able to catch on as quickly as he had. But I got the feeling he paid more attention than he let on. Daryl tried to take the crossbow back from me but I quickly snatched it away and set it down on the floor before he could. He huffed, crossing his arms and leaning back into the couch like a pissed off teenager which made me laugh. 

I pulled two cans of fruit and the can-opener out of the duffel bag and held them up for Daryl to choose which one he wanted. Hopefully food would distract him from being pissed off. He took the can of peaches from me and I handed him the can opener. Once he was done I opened my can of pears and put the can-opener back in the bag. We both ate in silence, watching the light outside slowly get darker and darker as the sun set behind the storm clouds. When our cans were empty we set them on the table and sat there quietly in the dark. I jumped a little when I felt Daryl start to move around next to me. I watched curiously as he turned around on the couch, propping his feet up on the end and laying back against me with his head in my lap. A small smile crept onto my face, I was glad he was finally gonna relax a little. He deserved it. 

I looked down at Daryl, laying in my lap with his eyes closed, and saw an opportunity to do something that I had wanted to do for longer than I would care to admit. Without a second thought I took the chance and lightly ran my fingers through his shaggy hair. It was still pretty wet from the rain but it was so soft, I was actually a little jealous. Daryl's eyes instantly snapped open, his intense blue gaze focused on me as I continued. 

"Why ya always smiling like that?" he asked and I shrugged in response. I didn't even realize I smiled often enough to even bring it up. 

"Ain't much to be smiling bout anymore" he mumbled. 

I rolled my eyes at his negative comment and leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek. As soon as I started to sit up, Daryl's hand was in my hair and he gently pulled me back down. I eagerly closed the gap between us, pressing my lips against his roughly. A shiver went through me as he lightly pulled my hair and took dominance, exploring my mouth with his tongue. My hand trailed across Daryl's firm chest and continued downward as our lips moved in synch. A low groan escaped his lips as he pulled away and grabbed my hand, stopping me from going any further. 

"Getting a little bold, ain't ya" he said in a husky voice. 

I smiled and shrugged. I may have gotten a little carried away, considering this was the first time we had done anything more than friendly since the farm, but damn if I didn't enjoy it. I pressed my lips to his again one more time before leaning back on the couch and pulling the thin blanket tighter around me. Daryl sat up suddenly, getting to his feet and walking lightly across the house. I waited for him to come back, curiosity consuming me with every passing second. I hope I didn't just scare him away like an idiot. 

A moment later Daryl came back with a thick blanket in his arms and a huge smile took over my face. He plopped down next to me, propping his feet up on the coffee table again and looking at me expectantly. I pulled the now soaked throw blanket off of me and scooted closer to Daryl as he spread the thick blanket out over us. I sighed happily as I snuggled further into the warm blanket. Things might have been pretty rough for all of us lately, but I couldn't have been happier at that moment.

The next morning the storm had passed and so had most of the walkers. Daryl and I gathered up our things, preparing to get back to the group so we could move on. He was looking through the peephole on the front door when I walked up beside him and tapped him on the arm.

"You ready?" He asked glancing over at me. I nodded, pulling my knife out of its case as Daryl opened the front door.


	28. 27

It had been a month since that night in the trailer park and things were getting really bad. We were out of food, almost out of water, we had run out of gas 10 miles out from the next town, and to top it off Lori started having contractions after only 30 minutes of walking so we had to stop. I was sitting on the ground next to Lori, rubbing her back as she took deep breaths in an attempt to stop the contractions.

"I'm fine" she huffed. "We need to keep going"

"You haven't eaten all day and you're dehydrated. If you keep going, you'll put yourself into early labor" Herschel said in a serious tone. 

"He's right, we can't take that risk" Rick said.

"There's something over there" Daryl said looking across an empty field through the scope of a rifle. Rick walked over to Daryl and looked in the same direction through a pair of binoculars.

"Whatever it is, there's a fence." Rick said.

"Were gonna lose the light soon" Daryl said looking at the sun getting lower in the sky.

"We'll go check it out, see what we can find." Rick replied. 

"Are you sure? Maybe we should just go back." Carol said looking nervous. 

"We'll be back tracking. Then it'll just be the same thing tomorrow" Rick said.

"This is our best bet right now" Daryl added. No one else seemed motivated to argue, we were all too exhausted and hungry, so we gathered up our things, helped Lori get to her feet, and started walking. 

It took us a while to get across the field since Lori couldn't go very fast, so the sun was already starting to set by the time we made it to the tall iron fence. My stomach turned uneasily when I looked through the iron bars at the rows of headstones on the other side. An old cemetery filled with hundreds of graves with a beautiful stone mausoleum sitting right in the middle.

"It's secure, it'll be safe" Rick said eying the mausoleum.

"You can't be serious!" Lori hissed angrily.

"You want us to sleep here?" Beth asked looking upset.

"No way man" T-dog protested.

"Do y'all have any better options?" Daryl snapped, quickly shutting everyone up.

"The sun is going down, we can't be running around out there in the dark" Rick said. "We can be safe here, a fence, walls. In the morning we'll keep going towards town for food and gas." No one objected again, but I could tell no one was really too happy about the situation either.

We found the front gate of the cemetery which was held closed by a thick chain and a pad lock. Lucky for us there was enough slack in the chain for us to squeeze through the gate and get safely inside the cemetery. We stuck close together as we went through the cemetery, just in case, but it seemed to be safe. When we got to the mausoleum Rick and Daryl went ahead of everyone, pushing the doors open quickly with weapons drawn, but thankfully it was empty. We all shuffled inside the safety of the stone walls and Carl and T-dog pushed the heavy doors closed behind us. The room was small, but plenty big enough for everyone. It was bigger than some of the living rooms we had crammed ourselves into over the last few months. 

I read a few of the engravings along the walls as I walked through the room. Many of them shared the same last name which meant this was probably a family tomb. I moved to the back corner of the room and sat down, claiming my spot for the night. A moment later Daryl sat down next to me and Carol, being the irritating little shadow she was, sat herself down on Daryl's other side. I know it was really petty of me, but just listening to the way Carol would talk to Daryl would just grind on my nerves. I tried to keep my catty attitude in check around her though, since she and Daryl had actually become really good friends over the last several months. But that didn't mean I couldn't daydream about punching her in the face on occasion to make myself feel better.

"This still doesn't feel right" Carol said looking at Daryl who was messing with his crossbow. "This place is meant for the dead." 

"I don't think they mind" he said using an old rag to clean the built up dirt and blood off of his crossbow. 

"He has a point" Glenn said, joining into the conversation. "This is the safest we've been in weeks."

"Alright, let's all get some rest so we can get an early start tomorrow. I'll take first watch" Rick said sitting down near the door.

I didn't need to be told twice, gladly curling up on the floor in my corner. I laid there for a few minutes, watching Daryl meticulously cleaning every part of his crossbow before closing my eyes. 

\--

I woke up to someone shaking my arm annoyingly. Who the hell would be trying to wake me up so early? Probably just my brother Connor trying to mess with me again. I swatted the hand away from me, curling into a ball to keep warm. Why was it so cold? And why did it feel like I was sleeping on the floor?

"Damn it Cooper, get your ass up" an impatient voice said from beside me. That wasn't Connor's voice. My eyes snapped open and I was met with a pair of piercing blue eyes that definitely didn't belong to my brother. What the hell?

Daryl POV:

The minute Cooper opened her eyes I knew something was wrong. The confusion on her face when she looked at me was my first clue. The swift kick to the gut I got as she scrambled away from me as fast as she could, that was more than enough for me to figure it out.

"Shit" I huffed, holding my stomach and trying not to puke. Not that anything would come up.

"What's going on?" Rick asked, looking at Cooper who was standing in the corner with wide eyes and a panicked expression. 

"Oh no" Glenn groaned.

"What are we supposed to do?" Carol asked me, eyeing Cooper uneasily. 

I glanced around and realized almost everyone was looking at her like that, like she was a bomb that would explode if anyone made one wrong move. I looked over at Cooper who looked like she was trying to become one with the wall at this point. She still looked nervous, but it was different this time. She wasn't hysterical and she wasn't crying, she was just standing there watching all of us the same way we were watching her.

"Cooper" Rick said quietly, trying not to scare her. She looked at him nervously and tried to say something, which obviously didn't work, and immediately started to panic.

"Wait, wait! You're ok!" Glenn said suddenly, trying to calm Cooper down before she could freak out. She looked at him suspiciously as he continued "You were in a car accident a few years ago, remember? Everything is fine, you're going to be ok. I promise." 

"We're your friends, we aren't going to hurt you" Carl said suddenly, adjusting the sheriff's hat on his head.

"Do you remember anything at all?" Rick asked her once she seemed to relax a little. She shook her head 'no' and Rick nodded his head in response. 

"What do we do now?" Maggie asked.

"We can't just sit here all day and wait for her to remember something" Carol said. "We need to find food." 

"We can't take her out there like this" I said, still watching her carefully. She didn't seem like she was going to flip out this time, but she's still unpredictable when she's like this.

"Rick, Lori isn't in any condition to travel right now" Herschel said. "I can stay here with her and Cooper while y'all go." 

"No, we aren't splitting up" Rick said sternly. 

"There isn't any other option" Herschel said, standing his ground. "We're safe here, we will be fine waiting until you get back." The old man did have a point, it was the best option we had, but it still didn't feel right leaving her here alone with those two while she's like this. 

"I can't just leave the three of you here unprotected" Rick said.

"I'll stay" I said looking at Rick. 

"What?" Carol gasped, seeming surprised. "But we need you out there, who knows what we'll run in to." 

"You'd rather leave them here to fend for themselves if something happens?" I argued.

"Daryl's right" Rick said. "We can handle whatever is out there, but they need someone here with them, just to be safe." 

Cooper POV:

I stayed frozen in my spot watching the strange group of people as they gathered their bags and weapons. They had mentioned going to town to get food, which I was thankful for since I was starving, but I didn't understand what they could possibly need all those weapons for. They made a quick run to the grocery store sound like a life or death mission. Once everyone had gone, the guy with the crossbow sat down by the door pretending to look outside but I could tell he was really watching me. He didn't seem to be mean or dangerous, he didn't even get mad that I kicked him in the stomach, but the way he watched me was weird. Even earlier when all those other people were here, he was watching my every move pretty much the whole time. 

After a while I got tired of just standing in the corner and decided to look around. If these people really were my friends and I just couldn't remember like they had said, then maybe I could find something to help me remember. The pregnant lady and the old man that stayed behind also were on one side of the room. The lady, who looked sickly thin for being pregnant, was laying down taking a nap while the man sat quietly reading a book. I walked around the opposite side of the stone room so I wouldn't disturb them and started reading the inscriptions on the wall. This was a tomb. These were grave markers. Some of them even had bouquets of fake flowers near them from their families. Why on earth would a group of people be sleeping in a place like this? I continued reading the names and noticed that most of them shared the same last name. This must have been a family tomb. 

I paused for a moment, getting a strong feeling of Deja vu. Suddenly several memories came flooding back to me all at once. Traveling with this group of people, eating whatever we could find, running from the dead. Suddenly I felt sick and went back to the corner of the room to sit down. What the hell was going on?

I sat there for a while trying to make sense of the memories that were slowly coming back to me. I guess I hadn't realized how long I was sitting there because I was brought back to reality when the group finally returned from their run into town. I sat quietly as they all huddled into the room and started unloading different foods and several bottles of water from their bags. 

"We'll eat first, then we can go back for the other vehicles." The leader said. I'm pretty sure his name was Rick. Everyone started grabbing something to eat, passing around the can opener for whoever needed it.

"Cooper, get something to eat" the Asian guy said. I still couldn't remember his name but I nodded and grabbed a random can from the pile. 

"Do you remember anything yet?" The pretty brunette next to him asked me. She seemed to be really nice. I shrugged and made a so-so gesture with my hand before grabbing the can opener that someone had just finished using. I had just started cutting my can open when crossbow guy snatched it out of my hands and replaced it with an already open can of spaghetti-o's. 

"You're allergic to carrots" he mumbled as he sat down next to me and finished opening the can of sliced carrots. 

I looked at him curiously, wondering how the hell he would know something like that about me when I didn't. Maybe I forgot? Obviously I have a problem remembering things. I couldn't remember any of them this morning but as the day had passed I had more and more slowly coming back to me. I decided to just be thankful right now that he saved me from an allergic reaction, even if I couldn't remember his name right now. 

After everyone finished eating Rick and a few other guys, including the crossbow guy who saved me from the carrots, went out to get the vehicles that got left behind the day before. A few minutes after they left the pretty brunette came and sat down beside me.

"That was sweet" she said with a grin. I gave her a confused look which only made her laugh. 

"There's something going on with you and Daryl" she explained. "The way he acts around you, he isn't like that with anyone else. Not even Carol."

Daryl, so that was the crossbow guy's name. I thought about what she said, trying to remember something else. Nothing about the way he acted around me today really jumped out at me. When a few memories of talking with him and teaching him sign language came back to me I thought she was really reaching for something. It didn't seem like we were anything but friends. Then, like a flood gate opening, everything came rushing back all at once. The car accident, the apocalypse, the group, everything with Daryl. All of it. I looked over at Maggie with wide eyes, embarrassed that she basically had to spell out what was going on between me and Daryl.

"I knew it" she said, grinning from ear to ear. I blushed furiously and buried my face in my hands.

'Does everyone know?' I asked, too embarrassed to make eye contact.

"I don't know" she shrugged. "But it wasn't very hard to figure it out. Y'all spend so much time together now, and he's always staring at you when you aren't looking." 

I was about to deny it when Carl suddenly pulled the heavy doors open letting the guys back inside. They were back from getting the vehicles. Maggie stood up and went to Glenn squeezing him in a tight hug. A moment later Daryl took Maggie's spot next to me, leaning against the wall with his crossbow in his lap. I tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

'How did you know I'm allergic to carrots?'

"It was in yer book" he mumbled, suddenly very interested in his crossbow. 

My journal. I remember how pissed I was that he had read it. It seemed like such a big deal at the time. Now I felt a little dumb for being so mean to him over it, especially since it got left behind back when we lost the farm anyway. I guess it was a good thing he had read it after all. I smiled and signed 'thank you' even though he wasn't looking at me, I had a feeling he was still paying attention.

Rick decided that we would stay here one more night before moving on since it was already starting getting late. Carol and a couple others didn't seem too comfortable with it but no one bothered to say anything. What Rick says, goes. 

I reached over and grabbed the crossbow from Daryl's hands, setting it down on the other side of him, then laid down with my head in his lap like he had done to me that night in the trailer park. I sighed happily and closed my eyes, just enjoying myself for the moment. It didn't last long. My eyes snapped open when Daryl flicked me on the nose really hard and I gave him a dirty look.

"That's for kicking me earlier" He chuckled and I couldn't help but smile too. I decided I could let him get away with it just this once, and closed my eyes again smiling like a goof over the fact that he hadn't told me to move yet.

~•~•~•~  
Extra long chapter for a special occasion! I'll be 11 weeks pregnant tomorrow! Also mostly because I had so much I wanted to happen before they get to the prison but was too lazy to try and split it up into different chapters.


	29. 28

Fair warning, I haven't proof read or edited any of this yet so sorry in advance.  
~•~•~

The spring had finally come and the days were getting warmer. We had spent the last eight months on the run but now things were starting to get stressful. Lori was due to go into labor at any time now so the pressure was really on for us to find some place safe that we could stay longer than just a few hours. It didn't help that with the warmer weather seemed to come more walkers. The cold weather had slowed them down quite a bit the last few months but now they were becoming more and more of a problem for us.

We had holed up in an old farm house for a short while earlier but ended up having to run again. Now we were gathered in the middle of a road with Carl and Beth on watch while we tried to figure out our next move. Rick had marked certain parts on the map that showed where we had run into bigger herds of walkers and from the looks of it they were going to cut us off before we could get anywhere. Rick decided we would double back then head west and rolled up the map to put it away. Herschel pulled him aside a minute later to talk to him, most likely about Lori's condition. 

"Hey Cooper, you coming with us?" T-dog asked.

"Where?" Daryl asked suddenly as he walked up next to me. 

"Few of us are going down to the river to get more water" T-dog explained. 

'Yes' I signed before Daryl could say anything. T-dog nodded and walked over to Rick, probably to tell him what we needed to do.

"You have yer gun?" Daryl asked.

'Yes, and my knife too' I replied with a smile. 

Lately it felt like Daryl had turned into mother hen and was constantly checking up on me. Not that I was complaining, but sometimes I felt like he was always worrying too much over nothing. I had gotten pretty good at handling the walkers over the winter and even though I wasn't the best with a gun, I could shoot well enough to get myself out of a tough situation.

"You ready to go?" T-dog asked as he walked back over to us and I nodded.

"Be careful" Daryl said handing me his empty water bottle so I could fill it up. 

I gave him a reassuring smile and followed T-dog, Carol, and Maggie into the woods. We all walked down to the river, Carol, Maggie and I filling up all of the bottles while T-dog watched for walkers. It didn't take long for us to finish up and and start heading back up to the highway. When we got back Rick, Daryl and Herschel were looking at the map again and it sounded like they were planning something. Rick told us about a prison he and Daryl had found. He said he thought it looked safe and he thought we could take it and Daryl seemed pretty confident that we could do it too, so we loaded up and headed to the prison. 

We snuck up to the fence, killing any walkers that got too close while Rick cut a hole for us to get through. I glanced over my shoulder as everyone squeezed through the fence then quickly followed so Daryl and Glenn could close up the hole. When the fence was secure we jogged through the alley between the two fences until we got to the front gate that lead into the prison yard. 

"It’s perfect" Rick said looking across the yard. "If we can shut that gate, prevent more from filling the yard, we can pick off these walkers. We’ll take the field by tonight" 

"How do we close the gate?" Herschel asked.

Glenn offered to run for the gate but Maggie and Rick both quickly said no. Rick told Daryl and Carol to take one guard tower and Carl and Herschel to take the other one while the rest of us killed as many through the fence as possible. T-dog, Glenn, Maggie, and Beth ran over to the other side of the fence to try and distract the walkers as much as possible. I decided to stay with Lori by the gate to help cover her if anything happened. 

I helped Lori pull the gate open so Rick could run through and then helped her push it back closed. Once the gate was securely shut I pulled my gun out and aimed through the fence shooting walkers. Within a few minutes Rick had successfully locked the gate across the yard. We paused for a second as he shot down a few walkers and went inside the guard tower on that side of the yard. 

"Light it up!" Daryl called from the far tower and we all started shooting freely, taking out all of the walkers in the yard. Once it was over, every one ran back to the gate as Lori and I pulled it open again.

"Fantastic!" Carol said excitedly as her and Daryl approached the gate.

"Nice shooting" Daryl said to Carol making her grin and making that ugly little bit of jealousy flare up inside me.  

"You okay?" Carol asked Lori as she walked closer to us.

"I haven’t felt this good in weeks" Lori said looking so relieved that she could cry.

Lori followed Carol inside as Daryl walked over to me looking happier than I think I had ever seen him before. I know he didn't like to show it but I could tell he was just as stressed about finding somewhere safe as Rick had been. Rick relied on him for so much, all of us did actually, and he had been stretching himself thinner and thinner lately trying to make sure everyone was fed and helping keep us safe.

'This place will be good for us' I signed with a huge smile. 

"Rick did good" Daryl said as we walked inside the gate and Daryl pulled it closed behind us. 

'You both did good' I corrected him and he just shrugged. 

"We can clear out a space for the night here" Rick said as we approached the rest of the group in the middle of the field. "Just move them to the other side of the yard for now, we can move them out later"

Rick decided to check the perimeter of the fence while we cleared out the area. Once we had a decent space free of walkers Daryl went to keep watch on top of an old prison bus that was flipped on its side near the front gate. The sun was starting to go down so we built a fire and cooked a rabbit that Daryl had killed while he was hunting earlier.

When it was done I helped Glenn divide the meat equally into bowls for everyone. I noticed Carol grabbed an extra bowl and started walking over to the bus that Daryl was still keeping watch from. I sat back with my bowl, picking at my food as I watched Carol climb up the bus and start talking with Daryl. The longer I sat there watching them the more irritated I got, then I noticed Daryl had started rubbing her shoulders. I was furious, jealous, nauseous, a whole range of emotions went through me. I set my food aside, not hungry anymore, and pulled my knees to my chest staring into the fire. 

Herschel had talked Beth into singing a song as sort of a celebration of our accomplishment I guess. She had a beautiful voice. I listened to the words of the song she was singing to distract myself from being pissed off, but it didn't last long. A minute later Daryl and Carol came walking back together. I heard Daryl walk over and sit down next to me but I kept my gaze focused on the fire. I was pissed off but I didn't want Daryl to know I was pissed off. I knew he wasn't that type of guy, but it still really bothered me.

"Quit that" Daryl muttered nudging me in the side with his elbow. I glanced over at him from the corner of my eye.

"It ain't like that and you know it. So quit." He said just loud enough so only I could hear him. I huffed and looked at the ground, irritated that he could always see right through me. 

"Better all turn in." Rick said once Beth was done singing. "I’ll take watch over there, we’ve got a big day tomorrow."

"What do you mean?" Glenn asked curiously.

"Look, I know we’re all exhausted. This was a great win. But we gotta push just a little bit more." Rick explained. "Most of the walkers are dressed as guards or prisoners, looks like this place fell pretty early. Could mean the supplies may be intact. They have an infirmary, a commissary."

"An armory?" Daryl asked looking intrigued.

"That would be outside the prison itself, but not too far away. Warden’s offices would have info on the location. Weapons, food, medicine, this place could be a gold mine!"

"We’re dangerously low on ammo." Herschel warned Rick. "We’ll run out before we make a dent."

"That’s why we gotta go in there. Hand to hand. After all we’ve been through, we can handle it, I know it. These assholes don’t stand a chance." Rick said before walking away with Lori right on his heels. I laid down in the grass facing the fire and closed my eyes. If tomorrow was going to be like Rick said, I wanted to be as rested as possible. 

The next morning we all gathered around the gate that lead further into the prison. We were preparing to fight our way through and I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared. I've helped fight off big groups of walkers before, but charging into a closed in space that was so over run with them was terrifying. 

"Yer shaking" Daryl said from beside me. I looked down at my hand that had a death grip on my knife. He was right, my hand was shaking so much it looked like I might drop my knife.

'I'm fine' I signed with my free hand, taking a deep breath to calm my nerves. 

"Stay close" he said to me as Rick pulled the gate open and we charged inside. 

We stayed in a circle, killing walkers from every angle as we slowly moved through the courtyard. I was gaining confidence as we continued on, but was taken completely off guard when T-dog broke away from the group. Panic shot through me when two walkers came up on me out of nowhere. I sunk my knife into one walkers skull, but was immediately jerked back when the other walker grabbed me. I struggled against its iron grip as it snapped it's rotten teeth at me. Suddenly Daryl's hunting knife pierced through the walker's head and it fell to the ground with a thud. 

"Stay in ranks!" Daryl yelled at T-dog who was running back with a shield he pulled off an armored guard.

Once we were back in formation we continued on, huddling against a brick wall near another open gate that more walkers were spilling through. 

"Daryl!" Rick called out, and the two of them rushed forward fighting off the walker's near the gate. The rest of us rushed forward, covering them while Rick pulled the gate closed and secured it. There were a few stubborn walkers wearing body armor that were a little hard to kill, but Maggie figured out how to get them and we quickly finished them off. 

"Stop" Rick called when Glenn and Maggie started back toward the rest of the group who were still waiting back in the field.

"It looks secure" Glenn said, confused.

"Not by the looks of that courtyard over there" Daryl said. "And that’s a civilian" He said pointing to a female walker wearing a floral dress.

"So the interior could be over run by walkers from outside the prison" T-dog sighed.

"Well, if there’s walls, then, what are we gonna do? We can’t rebuild this whole place." Glenn said.

"We can’t risk a blind spot." Rick said. "We have to push in." He said and lead us to the door of the nearest cell block. 

Rick and Daryl went through the door first, moving cautiously through the small, dimly lit hallway. The rest of us followed behind them looking around curiously as we walked through a doorway into a big room full of tables and stools that were secured to the floor. There were huge windows along the entire wall that lead into the cell block that were covered with thick steel bars. Within just a few minutes Rick and Daryl had killed the few walkers that were left and Maggie had gone out to get the rest of our group. T-dog and Glenn were dragging the bodies out as the rest of the group came inside carrying all of our bags inside. 

Carol handed me my small beat up backpack that I had found over the winter and I grabbed it from her with a little bit of an attitude. I climbed the stairs to the second level and walked into the first cell I came to, not caring about the blood on the floor. I tossed my backpack on the metal table in the corner of the room and turned around, nearly jumping out of my skin when I saw someone standing in the doorway.

"Jumpy today, aren't you?" Daryl said, sounding a little amused. I shrugged and looked down, not really in the mood for joking around today. 

"Hey" he said, waiting for me to look at him before he continued. "Do me a favor ok, quit being mean to Carol." 

I swear my jaw probably hit the floor as I gave him a furious glare.

"Stop! Just listen to me" He said sternly before I could flip out. "Ain't no reason for you to be acting like this. It ain't like that with her and you know it." 

'What is it then?' I signed, taking a deep breath to keep my temper under control. 

"It isn't anything!" he huffed. "We just get along. It's not like it is with you!" 

I stared at him in surprise and felt my cheeks turn pink. This was the first time Daryl had even come close to talking about whatever this was with us, and I definitely wasnt expecting it.  Daryl seemed a little surprised too, because he instantly clammed up and looked down at the floor nervously. I stepped forward slowly and wrapped my arms around him tightly, noticing that he seemed to relax a little bit as he hugged me back. 

'I'm sorry' I signed when I let him go and he nodded, still not saying anything. 

I smiled at him and pressed my lips to his quickly before he really had a chance to react. When I took a step back I couldn't help the huge smile on my face as Daryl muttered something about a mattress with his gaze still firmly glued to the floor. He reached for the mattress on the top bunk and I stood back watching in amusement as he maneuvered it out of the small cell while actively avoiding looking at me.

He drug the mattress out onto the catwalk and plopped himself down on it, balling up his poncho to use as a pillow. I decided to do the same, kicking my boots off and curling up on the surprisingly comfortable mattress on the bottom bunk. I couldn't remember the last time I had slept in a real bed and it didn't take me long at all to fall asleep.

~•~•~  
Sorry for the delay guys, I've had so many appointments for my kids this week, the time just got away from me.


End file.
